Abstract

We have investigated resonant pumping into the upper laser level of end-pumped TEM₀₀ mode Nd-doped Vanadate lasers using 880 nm diodes and compared the performance with traditional pumping at 808 nm. For both pump wavelengths, optimization of the doping concentration resulted in optical efficiencies in excess of 40% but much lower thermal lensing (by nearly 40%) was measured for direct pumping.

© 2002 Optical Society of America