Enhanced 532‐nm emission by frequency-doubling of the one-micron Nd:yttrium vanadate laser in gadolinium calcium oxoborate

It is shown that owing to the improvement of the laser emission parameters at the fundamental frequency and to the reduction of the heat generated by nonradiative processes, the direct pumping into the emitting level of Nd:YVO4 enhances considerably the power emitted at the second harmonic in an intracavity frequency-doubling device. In the case of a laser with an a-cut 0.27at.% Nd:YVO4 crystal frequency-doubled with a GdCa4O(BO3)3 (GdCOB) crystal cut for Type I frequency doubling in the plane XY, an enhancement of the emitted power at 532nm by about 100% was obtained for ∼1100‐mW incident Ti:sapphire laser pump at 880nm compared with the traditional pumping at 809nm. It is inferred that besides the improvement of the efficiency, this modality of pumping would enable the scaling of these devices to higher power.

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