Thermal Lensing Measurement and Laser Performance of End-Pumped Lightly Doped Nd:GdVO_(4) Crystal

摘要

The thermal lensing effect generated in an end-pumped lightly doped Nd:GdVO4 crystal was found to be considerably weaker than that in Nd:YVO4 having the same Nd3+ concentration. Consequently, the laser performance of Nd:GdVO4 at high pump powers over 20 W was found to be superior to that of Nd:YVO4. TEM00 mode cw radiation of 14.3 W at 1.06μm was achieved with an optical conversion efficiency of 55%, and average slope efficiency of 62%.