Development of a CW tunable Yb:YLF laser

High power continuous-wave operation of a diode-pumped Yb:YLF laser was investigated. The laser generated 8.4 W of output power for 20 W of incident pump power. The wavelength tuning range of the laser was also measured by using a birefringent filter plate and laser operation from 1025 nm to 1073 nm was obtained at room temperature. These results indicate good potential for generation of high power ultrashort pulses based on Yb:YLF crystal.