Efficient CW Nd:GdVO4-BiBO deep-blue laser at 456 nm under direct 888 nm diode laser pumping

Abstract

We report an efficient laser emission on the 912 nm 4F3/2 to 4I9/2 transition in Nd:GdVO4 under the pump with diode lasers at 888 nm. Continuous wave (CW) 4.91 W output power at 912 nm is obtained under 18.3 W of incident pump power; the slope efficiency with respect to the incident pump power was 57.5%. Moreover, intracavity frequency doubling with BiB3O6 (BiBO) nonlinear crystal yielded 1.33 W of deep-blue light at 456 nm.