The authors present, for the first time, the application of a diode-pumped birefringent Nd:YAG microchip laser, manufactured by the Daimler Bent AG Munich, for velocity measurements of solid surfaces by heterodyne vibrometry. Utilizing two orthogonal polarized axial modes of the microchip laser, heterodyne signals can be generated without having to use additional frequency shift elements. The sign and the magnitude of the surface velocity were determined in the baseband by the quadrature demodulation technique.