100-W Yb:YAG thin-disk vortex laser oscillator

Abstract

Optical vortices carrying orbital angular momentum and spiral wavefront phases have garnered increasing research interest owing to their numerous applications. Here, we present a simple yet effective approach to generate powerful optical vortices directly from a thin-disk laser oscillator. The demonstrated source delivered Laguerre–Gaussian beams with an output power of up to 101 W. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of all optical vortex laser oscillators. The high-power vortex output will have significant implications for laser ablation and micromachining at high throughput and for large-area applications. Additionally, it serves as a new platform for the further development of more complex high-power optical-vortex beams.

Keywords

• thin disk
• vortex oscillator
• high power
• transverse-mode control