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arXiv · 1712.09292

Spatial hole burning in thin-disk lasers and twisted-mode operation

Karsten Schuhmann·Klaus Kirch·Francois Nez·Gunther Wichmann·Randolf Pohl·Aldo Antognini
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Abstract

Spatial hole burning prevents single-frequency operation of thin-disk lasers when the thin disk is used as a folding mirror. We present an evaluation of the saturation effects in the disk for disks acting as end-mirrors and as folding-mirrors explaining one of the main obstacles towards single-frequency operation. It is shown that a twisted-mode scheme based on a multi-order quarter-wave plate combined with a polarizer provides an almost complete suppression of spatial hole burning and creates an additional wavelength selectivity that enforces efficient single-frequency operation.

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Karsten Schuhmann, Klaus Kirch, Francois Nez, Gunther Wichmann, Randolf Pohl, Aldo Antognini. 2017-12-26. Spatial hole burning in thin-disk lasers and twisted-mode operation. https://doi.org/10.1364/ao.57.002900

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