8 W 240 fs diode-pumped Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic thin-rod femtosecond amplifier

A diode-pumped Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic thin-rod amplifier which operates in the femtosecond regime is studied here. In a single-stage and direct four-pass amplification scheme, the amplifier delivers maximum output power of 8.1 W at a center wavelength of 1030.5 nm and spectral bandwidth of 4.8 nm. Assume a sech²-shaped pulse, a pulse duration of 239 fs is measured, exhibiting a time-bandwidth product value of 0.324. To the best of our knowledge, our Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic thin-rod femtosecond amplifier exhibits the shortest pulse duration with Watt-level output power among all Yb:Y₂O₃-based femtosecond amplifiers.