The Lasing Properties Of The All-solid-state C-cut Nd: GdVO₄ Laser

In recent several years, there has been an increasing interest laser-diode pumped all-solid-state lasers because such lasers can widely used in the fields of military affairs, industry, medicines and so on. As a relatively new laser medium, Nd:GdVO₄ has the same crystal configuration as the Nd:YVO₄, both have the advantages of large emission cross and absorption coefficient, linear polarization output. In addition Nd:GdVO₄ has higher thermal conductivity , which make it adapt to high-power pump. Laser crystals have different characteristic along different direction because of the different parameter along different direction. So the incision direction should be considered when we talk about the laser crystal. The a-cut Nd:GdVO₄ has been well researched, and comprehensive laser characteristics of the crystal have been get. But the laser performance of the c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystal has been known little.This paper mainly studies the LD end-pumped Nd:GdVO₄ laser, measures the continuous wave and the Q-switched output characterization of 1064 nm wave. Rate equations are the efficient tools to describe performs of the both lasers. Comparing the c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ laser with the a-cut Nd:GdVO₄ laser ,we get the excellent characteristics of c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ crystal laser medium in this paper. The contents are as follows:1. The diode pumped solid state lasers and diode pumped solid state laser materials briefly are described. The advantage of the solid state lasers and the main performance of LD pumped with Nd:GdVO₄ laser crystal are introduced.2. The several aspects of the thermal effects of the laser crystal are discussed. The thermal effect on parameter mode design was discussed from the point of thermal effect, the matrix transformation of Gauss beam and ABCD law. We studied the 1.06μm laser output of the c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ . We also analyze the influence of thermal effect of the laser crystal and the pump spot radius.3. The fundamental properties of Cr⁴⁺:YAG is researched, and rate equation is given when the Gauss's distribution is considered. Theoretical analyses about pulse width, peak power, pulse energy are presented. Some experiments are made about LD end-pumped c-cut Nd:GdVO₄ by using Cr⁴⁺:YAG as saturable absorber.4. Investigation of the lasing properties of a diode-pumped c-cut Nd3+:GdVO4 passively Q-switched and mode-locking laser with Cr⁴⁺:YAG saturable absorber.