Experimental study of 880 nm laser-diode end-pumped Nd:GdVO₄ laser with hybrid resonator at 1.34 μm

The 880 nm LD directly pumping into the emitting level with LD partially end-pumped structure was combined, some experiment was done to study the output characteristic of Nd:GdVO₄ laser at 1 342 nm. An off-axis positive confocal unstable resonator was built up, and a 4-bar laser diode stack which central wavelength was 880 nm as pump source was used. 26.3W continuous-wave laser power output was gotten under the pump power of 178 W, and the slope efficiency and optical-to-optical efficiency were 27% and nearly 14.8%, respectively. At the output power of 20 W, beam quality M² factors were both 1.3 in the unstable direction and stable direction. The result showed that by combining 880 nm LD directly pumping into the emitting level with LD partially end-pumped structure, beam quality has been greatly improved compared with the same output power level end-pumped Nd:GdVO₄ laser.