Towards a compact thin-disk-based femtosecond XUV source
b'The goal of this thesis is to develop a compact high-power solid-state oscillator capable of superseding existing ultrafast technology based on low-power Ti:sapphire oscillators. Different applications such as extra- or intra-cavity XUV generation, seeding of high-energy low-repetition-rate amplifier systems and femtosecond enhancement cavities can be dramatically influenced by the availability of such a reliable, compact femtosecond source.\\n\\nWe applied, for the first time, Kerr-lens mode-locking to a thin-disk Yb:YAG oscillator, resulting in an unprecedented combination of an average power 45 W and pulse duration of 250 fs directly available from the oscillator with repetition rate of 40 MHz and a footprint of only 1*0.4 m^2. Even shorter emission-bandwidth-limited 200-fs pulses have been generated with the reduced output coupler transmission of 5.5% at an average power of 17 W. Moreover, the oscillator was operating not only in the negative dispersion regime common to solid-state oscillators but also in the positive dispersion regime, resulting in a spectrum spanning a range of 20 nm, which is the broadest hitherto reported for Yb:YAG material in high-power operation.\\n\\nFirst attempts towards CE phase-stabilized high-power pulses from such an oscillator are also described.\\n\\nState-of-the-art XUV generation driven by high-power NIR femtosecond systems requires methods of separating generated XUV from NIR radiation. Such a method has been proposed and realized. It constitutes a glass substrate having a low-loss anti-reflection coating for NIR wavelengths at grazing incidence of >70\\xb0 and serving simultaneously as a high reflector for radiation in the range of 1-100 nm with reflectivity >60%. The device can be used for both extra- and intra-cavity XUV generation.'