The fundamental principles of the operation of a thin-disk laser are presented. We derived equations from a set of coupled rate equations that predict that the characteristics of a laser are affected by the Boltzmann occupation factors of the pump and the laser states simultaneously. The model is used to investigate the influence of the effective parameters on the operational efficiency of an end-pumped Yb:YAG disk laser. Based on our results, we examined laser output power as a function of output coupler reflectivity, crystal thickness or doping concentration, number of the pump beam passes, and temperature.