Femtosecond Yb:KGW laser pumped by a compact 946 nm Nd:YAG laser

An efficient ultrashort pulse Yb:KGW laser oscillator pumped by a Nd:YAG laser is reported. The pump source was a continuous-wave Nd:YAG laser operating at 946 nm. In the mode-locked regime, 139 fs long pulses at 1028 nm were generated at a repetition rate of 54.6 MHz with an average output power of up to 0.86 W, corresponding to an optical-to-optical efficiency of 27.2% with respect to the absorbed pump power.