Injection-seeded high-power Yb:YAG thin-disk laser stabilized by the Pound-Drever-Hall method

We demonstrate an injection-seeded thin-disk Yb:YAG laser at 1030 nm, stabilized by the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) method. We modified the PDH scheme to obtain an error signal free from Trojan locking points, which allowed robust re-locking of the laser and reliable longterm operation. The single-frequency pulses have 50 mJ energy (limited to avoid laser-induced damage) with a beam quality of M-2 < 1.1 and an adjustable length of 55-110 ns. Heterodyne measurements confirmed a spectral linewidth of 3.7 MHz. The short pulse build-up time (850 ns) makes this laser suitable for laser spectroscopy of muonic hydrogen, pursued by the CREMA collaboration.(c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement