LD end-pumped c-cut Nd:YVO4 laser at 589 nm generated by sef-Raman conversion and frequency doubling

In this paper we report a LD end-pumped c-cut Nd:YVO4 yellow laser generated by sef-Raman conversion and frequency doubling. A 10-mm-length KTP with critical phase matching (theta = 69 degrees, phi = 0 degrees) cut is adopted as a second-harmonic generation. For the lower stimulated-emission cross section of c-cut Nd:YVO4, crystal, the resonator cavity and the coating of crystals are carefully designed to reduce the insert loss and diffraction loss. Finally, at a repetition rate of 10 kHz and an incident pump power of 11.2 W, the average power of yellow light up to 570 mW is achieved, corresponding to an overall diode yellow conversion efficiency of 5.1% and a slope efficiency of 6.6%. The central wavelength is at 589. 17 nm with a width of 0.2 nm, which is well fitted to the sodium D2 resonance radiation.