High Power Continuous-Wave Diode-End-Pumped 1.34-μm Nd:GdVO₄ Laser

A high power cw all-solid-state 1.34-μm Nd:GdVO₄ laser is experimentally demonstrated. With a diode-double-end-pumped configuration and a simple plane-parallel cavity, a maximum output power of 27.9W is obtained at incident pump power of 96W, introducing a slope efficiency of 35.4%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest output power of diode-end-pumped 1.3-μm laser. With the experimental data, the thermal-stress-resistance figure of merit of Nd:GdVO₄ crystal with 0.3at% Nd³⁺ doped level is calculated to be larger than 9.94W/cm.