Laser-Diode End-Pumped Nd:YVO₄ Slab Laser under Direct Pumping into the Emitting Level

We present an 880-nm laser-diode partially end-pumped Nd:YVO4 slab cw laser with output 126.7 W by using a hybrid resonator. The slop efficiency and optical-to-optical efficiency with respect to absorbed pumping power are 73.2% and 58.7%, respectively. At the output power of 100 W, the beam propagation M² factors are 1.1 in the unstable direction and 1.15 in the stable direction.