A self-Raman, Nd:GdVO4 laser generating 2.5W CW output at 586nm

This paper report a CW, frequency doubled, Nd:GdV04 self-Raman laser producing 2.51 W of CW yellow emission with a 12.2 % overall optical (diode-to-yellow) conversion efficiency. This high level of output power is a result of a laser design which minimises thermal loading of the laser crystal, minimises resonator loss at the fundamental and first Stokes wavelength and maximises the collection efficiency of the yellow light generated in the doubling crystal.