Widely tunable Yb:KYW laser with a volume Bragg grating

We demonstrate a narrowband, continuously tunable Yb:KYW laser locked by a volume Bragg grating at oblique incidence in a retroreflector configuration. The tuning range was 997 nm to 1050 nm (15 THz) with bandwidth < 0.1 nm and a maximum output power of 4.7 W. In a high-quality beam with M(2) < 1.3, the maximum output power was 1.7 W. We also demonstrate 3 W output power at 1064 nm from the same Yb:KYW laser with the grating at normal incidence.