High damage threshold SESAMs for high power femtosecond modelocking: 23 W, 235 fs Yb:LuScO3 thin-disk laser

Modelocked thin-disk lasers (TDLs) are currently the leading ultrafast oscillator technology in terms of output power and pulse energy. We demonstrate the suitability of Yb:LuSc03 for power-scaling. We achieved 194-fs pulses with 9.5 W, which are the shortest pulses ever obtained from a modelocked thin-disk laser. Furthermore, we obtained 23 W in 235-fs pulses, limited by imperfect thermal contacting of the disk.