Abstract: A laser includes a split-wave hybrid resonator that produces a high quality laser beam from a low gain laser medium. The split-wave hybrid resonator includes a resonator cavity formed by a pair of resonator mirror surfaces positioned at opposite ends of the laser medium and a pair of resonator walls positioned on opposite sides of the resonator cavity. The resonator walls are separated from each other by a separation distance such that the resonator cavity has a Fresnel number between approximately 0.5 and 1.5. At least one of the resonator walls includes a first ring oscillation filter adjacent to the lasing medium to filter out ring oscillations within the laser medium. One or more of the resonator walls may include first and second wall portions angled with respect to each other to form a wave-front splitting interferometer. The resonator mirrors are tilted off-axis with respect to the resonator walls.