Efficient 914 nm Nd3+:YVO4 laser by in-band pumping at 878 nm

This paper reports on an Nd 3+ :YVO 4 laser in-band pumped by a 878 nm diode laser. Compared with conventional 808 nm pumping, 878 nm pumping offers higher quantum efficiency and lower thermal load, thereby reducing thermal load and reabsorption losses. With a 0.2 at.% doped Nd 3+ :YVO 4 crystal, a continuous-wave (CW) output of 23.9 W is achieved under a 109 W ended 878 nm pump, corresponding to a slope efficiency of 23.8% and a beam quality factor of M x 2 = 1.9 and M y 2 = 1.5 . The RMS power stability is better than 0.38% over one hour. Passive Q-switching with a Cr:YAG saturable absorber (SA) produces an average output power of 15.2 W, corresponding to a single-pulse energy of 215.2 μJ and a peak power of 7.9 kW a 70.8 kHz. To the best of our knowledge, this work achieves the highest output power reported to date for both CW and Q-switched 914 nm Nd 3+ :YVO 4 lasers.