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Generation of Radially or Azimuthally Polarized Laser Beams in a Yb:YAG Thin-disc Laser

  • Ye Jin Oh (Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Hanyang University ERICA) ;
  • In Chul Park (Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Hanyang University ERICA) ;
  • Eun Kyoung Park (Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Hanyang University ERICA) ;
  • Jiri Muzik (HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Yuya Koshiba (HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Pawel Sikocinski (HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Martin Smrz (HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Tomas Mocek (HiLASE Centre, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences) ;
  • Hoon Jeong (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology) ;
  • Ji Won Kim (Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Hanyang University ERICA)
  • Received : 2024.04.08
  • Accepted : 2024.06.29
  • Published : 2024.08.25

Abstract

A high-power Yb:YAG thin-disc laser with radial or azimuthal polarization incorporating an intracavity S-waveplate is reported. Depending on the rotational angle of the S-waveplate placed in the cavity, a Yb:YAG thin-disc laser yields 10.8 W and 10.2 W of continuous-wave outputs with radial and azimuthal polarization for an incident pump power of 131 W, corresponding to slope efficiencies of 22.9% and 23.7%, respectively. The output characteristics for each polarization state were investigated in detail by analyzing the insertion loss and the mode overlap efficiency due to the S-waveplate. Further prospects for power scaling will be discussed.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) (Grant no. 2021R1A2C1007277); European Union and the state budget of the Czech Republic under the project LasApp (Grant no. CZ.02.01.01/00/22_008/0004573).

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