Laser diode pumped actively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 self-Raman laser operating at 1173 nm

A laser diode pumped actively Q-switched Nd:GdVO4 self-Raman laser operating at 1173 nm is presented. The maximum output power was 2.26 W at an incident pump power of 18 W, with the corresponding optical conversion efficiency of 12.6%. Two different resonator configurations were investigated in order to achieve high output power and efficiency.