SBIR Phase I: Yb:KGW for High Power and Ultrafast Lasers

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This Small Business Research (SBIR) Phase I project will determine the feasibility of scaling Yb:KGW based lasers to high powers and high beam quality through well controlled crystal growth of high quality crystals, accurate measurement of critical materials properties, and extrapolation of performance and manufacturability. Ytterbium (Yb) doped lasers are appealing for high power applications due to efficient diode pumping by commercially available diode lasers in the 900-980 nm spectral range. Yb:KGW is interesting in that high Yb doping concentrations are achievable. More significant are the unique properties of efficient self-cooling through anti-Stokes fluorescence and beam cleanup through stimulated Raman scattering. Another application exploits the wide emission bandwidth for mode-locked femtosecond pulses of high peak power leading to new sources for nonlinear spectroscopy and commercial high power pulsed sources. Critical data required to extrapolate the effectiveness of power scaling Yb:KGW lasers have been obtained from crystals of variable quality and from a limited subset of possible crystal compositions. The broader impacts of this technology would be for commercial solid state laser systems. Significant advances in the fields of industrial, medical, and research laser applications can be anticipated. Power scaling and reduced thermal management requirements lead to more efficient and lower cost high power 1m industrial lasers used in materials processing (cutting, welding, marking). Medical laser applications include therapeutic and surgical lasers, and picosecond pulse hard tissue dental lasers. Direct diode pumping allows for simple mode-locked ultrafast systems with reduced complexity and cost over conventional argon ion or frequency doubled Nd:YAG-pumped Ti:sapphire systems. In addition, the 1m mode-locked operationextends beyond the 900 nm limit of Ti:Sapphire creating new possibilities for optical parametric oscillator pump sources.