High-power Yb:YAG rod oscillators and amplifiers

We report 0.95 kW average output power from a single cw-diode pumped Yb:YAG power oscillator. The 3-mm diameter solid-state laser rod is side pumped by three sets of cw diode arrays each of which has an electrical-to-optical efficiency of up to 50%. Our phase-conjugate master oscillator, power-amp architecture will incorporate this pump cavity as one of the power amplifiers for multi-kW average power, good beam quality laser applications.