High-efficiency direct-pumped Nd:YVO₄ laser operating at 1.34 μm

We report a high-efficiency Nd:YVO₄ laser operating at 1342 nm pumped by an all-solid-state Q-switched Ti:Sapphire laser at 879 nm. A plano-concave cavity was optimized to obtain high efficiency and good beam quality. Output power for two Nd:YVO₄ crystals with 1.0- and 3.0-at.% Nd³⁺ doping under 879-nm pumping was measured respectively. Comparative results obtained by traditional pumping at 808 nm into the highly absorbing ⁴F_5/2 level were presented, showing that the slope efficiency of the 1.0-at.% Nd:YVO₄ laser under 879-nm pumping was 10.5% higher than that of 808-nm pumping. In a 4-mm-thick, 1.0-at.% Nd:YVO₄ crystal, a high slope efficiency of 64% was achieved under 879-nm pumping, with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 41.3%.