High-power stable continuous-wave single-longitudinal-mode Nd:YVO4 laser at 1342 nm

A universal model about the sufficient condition of stable single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) operation is established and applied to the theoretical analysis of a high power unidirectional ring Nd:YVO4 laser at 1342 nm with energy transfer upconversion and excited stimulated absorption taken into account. A stable continuous-wave SLM laser with 1342 nm power of 11.3 W and 671 nm power of 0.3 W is fabricated by optimizing the transmission of output coupler and the temperature of LiB3O5 crystal. Mode-hopping-free laser operation with a power stability better than ± 0.5% and a frequency fluctuation less than ± 88 MHz is achieved during a given three hours.