A novel CW yellow light generated by a diode-end-pumped intra-cavity frequency mixed Nd:YVO4 laser

We report an efficient continuous-wave (CW) yellow beam based on a Nd:YVO4 laser with a dual-wavelength wave plate, which is a full-wave plate at 1342 nm and a quarter-wave plate at 1064 nm. By inserting the dual-wavelength wave plate into the laser cavity and tuning the fast axis angle, based on the polarized property emission of Nd:YVO4, two simultaneous wavelengths of 1064 nm and 1342 nm were achieved. A LiB3O5 (LBO) crystal that is cut for critical type I phase matching at room temperature is used for summing frequency generation (SFG) of the laser. At an incident pump power of 5 W, a maximum CW output of 224 mW was obtained for a yellow laser with a wavelength of 593.5 nm and an optical-to-optical efficiency of 4.48%. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a dual-wavelength wave plate has been used to realize a Nd:YVO4 yellow laser output. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.