Intracavity frequency-doubled yellow laser in an electron-phonon-coupled Nd:YVO4 crystal.

Abstract

An approach to obtain a yellow laser is demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge by the employment of an Nd3+-doped YVO4 crystal and a LBO frequency-doubling crystal. Differing from the previous stimulated self-Raman radiation of Nd:YVO4, a direct 1176 nm lasing, without a high-intensity intracavity 1064 nm laser, was realized by utilizing an electron-phonon coupling effect and amplifying the thermally activated vibronic transitions. Combining with intracavity frequency-doubling, a yellow laser at 588 nm was obtained. At the pump power of 14.3 W, the output power of the yellow laser was 1.17 W, corresponding to a diode-to-visible efficiency of 8.2%. Moreover, for the first time, the yellow laser at 584 nm with output power of 164 mW was realized by tuning the filter, indicating the great potential of such an electron-phonon coupling laser for a wavelength extension in the yellow regime.