High-Power Continuous-Wave Nd:GdVO₄ Solid-State Laser Dual-End-Pumped at 880 nm

A high-power cw all-solid-state Nd:GdVO₄ laser operating at 880 nm is reported. The laser consists of a low doped level Nd:GdVO₄ crystal dual-end-pumped by two high-power diode lasers and a compact negative confocal unstable–stable hybrid resonator. At an incident pump power of 820 W, a maximum cw output of 240 W at 1064 nm is obtained. The optical-to-optical efficiency and slope efficiency are 40.7% and 53.2%, respectively. The M² factors in the unstable direction and in the stable direction are 4.38 and 5.44, respectively.