Cascaded c-cut Nd:YVO4 self-Raman laser operation with a single 259 cm−1 shift

A cascaded c-cut Nd:YVO4 crystal self-Raman operation was demonstrated with a Raman shift of 259 cm−1. The Stokes oscillation with a primary Raman shift of 890 cm−1 was suppressed and a cascaded self-Raman with a single Raman shift of 259 cm−1 was realized based on suitable coating design. At an incident pump power of 13.3 W, the second Stokes at 1129 nm was obtained as the main output laser and the output power was about 0.81 W. As the incident pump power increased, dual Stokes at 1129 and 1163 nm were obtained. A maximum output power of up to 1.0 W with a conversion efficiency of 6.7% was achieved at an incident pump power of 14.9 W and a pulse repetition frequency of 15 kHz.