High-efficiency kilowatt-level continuous-wave Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic thin-disk laser

We report a kilowatt-class Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic thin-disk laser enabled by a diamond heat sink. Under 976 nm diode pumping, continuous-wave (CW) output power of 1089 W at 1031.7 nm is achieved with an optical-to-optical efficiency of 73%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of kilowatt-class output from a Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic gain medium. Moreover, the optical-to-optical efficiency obtained in the experiment represents the highest reported among all sesquioxide ceramic thin-disk lasers, indicating that Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramics are promising gain media for high-power and high-efficiency laser systems.