Phase and amplitude pre-shaping for a high-power ps-wedged thin-disk amplifier

Wedged thin-disk amplifiers offer a compact, monolithic alternative to conventional thin-disk multipass systems. As a trade-off, the wedged shape inherently introduces complex thermal lensing and phase distortions, degrading beam quality at high output powers. We demonstrate a spatial light modulator based adaptive phase and amplitude correction system for pre-compensation of aberrations. Utilizing the large acceptance angle of the wedged thin-disk, the adaptive element can be introduced before the optical amplification. Starting with M² ≃ 1.2 at 25 W, we obtain near diffraction limited beam quality M² = 1.3 for 150 W of output power, estimate a good beam quality (M² < 2) for up to 250 W, and reach up to 330 W of average power. This demonstrates the readiness of the technology for modern industrial and scientific applications.