Thermal conductivity of a Tm3+:GdVO4 crystal and the operational characteristics of a microchip laser based on it

The thermal conductivity of a Tm3+:GdVO4 crystal was measured in the temperature range 50 — 300 K. At a temperature of 300 K, the thermal conductivity along the c axis amounted to 9.7 W m-1 K-1, which is higher than the thermal conductivity of a Cr:Tm:Ho :YAG crystal. A maximum output power of 1.4 W (λ=1.915 μm) was attained in a Tm3+:GdVO4 microchip laser for a lasing threshold of 5.7 W and a differential efficiency of 9.2%. A GdVO4 array was found to have a number of advantages compared with other media for the fabrication of diode-pumped lasers.