High power cw and mode-locked oscillators based on Yb:KYW multi-crystal resonators

We report on a high power diode-pumped laser using multiple bulk Yb:KY(WO4)2 (KYW) crystals in a resonator optimised for this operation. From a dual-crystal resonator we obtain more than 24W of cwpower in a TEM00 mode limited by the available pump power. We also present results for semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locking in the soliton as well as positive dispersion regime with average output powers of 14.6W and 17W respectively.