Nd:YVO4 Crystal Página 1 de 5

Neodymium Doped Yttrium Orthvanadate

(Nd:YVO4) Crystal

Nd:YVO4 is one of the most efficient laser host crystal currently existing for diode laser-
pumped solid-state lasers. Its large stimulated emission cross-section at lasing wavelength,
high absorption coefficient and wide absorption bandwidth at pump wavelength, high laser
induced damage threshold as well as good physical, optical and mechanical properties
make Nd:YVO4 an excellent crystal for high power, stable and cost-effective diode pumped
solid-state lasers. Recent developments have shown that Nd:YVO4 can produce powerful
and stable IR, green, bule lasers with the design of Nd:YVO4 and frequency doubling
crystals.

Compared with Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF for diode laser pumping, Nd:YVO4 lasers possess the
advantages of lower dependency on pump wavelength and temperature control of a diode
laser, wide absorption band, higher slope efficiency, lower lasing threshold, linearly
polarized emission and single-mode output. For the applications in which more compact
design and the single-longitudinal-mode output are needed, Nd:YVO4 shows its particular
advantages over other commonly used laser crystals. The diode laser-pumped Nd:YVO4
compact laser and its frequency-doubled green, red or bule laser will be the ideal laser tools
of machining, material processing, spectroscopy, wafer inspection, light show, medical
diagnostics, laser printing and the most widespread applications.

With advanced technology on growing high optical quality and large size Nd:YVO4 crystals,
CASIX steadily provides as large as φ35x50 mm3 Nd:YVO4 bulk crystal and φ20x20mm3
finished crystal with very low intrinsic optical loss. Now, CASIX massively produces and
provides high quality Nd:YVO4 crystals at very competitive prices.

Properties
Main Features:

™ Low lasing threshold and high slope efficiency

™ Large stimulated emission cross-section at lasing wavelength
™ High absorption over a wide pumping wavelength bandwidth
™ Optically uniaxial and large birefringence emits polarized laser

1. Basic Properties

Atomic Density: ~1.37x1020 atoms/cm2

Crystal Structure: Zircon Tetragonal, space group D4h, a=b=7.12, c=6.29

Density: 4.22 g/cm2

Mohs Hardness: Glass-like, ~5

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Thermal Expansion Coefficient: αa=4.43x10-6/K, αc=11.37x10-6/K

Thermal Conductivity Coefficient:  C: 5.23 W/m/K; ⊥C: 5.10 W/m/K

2. Optical Properties (typically for 1.1 atm% Nd:YVO4, a-cut crystals)

Lasing Wavelengths 914nm, 1064 nm, 1342 nm

positive uniaxial, no=na=nb, ne=nc,
no=1.9573, ne=2.1652, @ 1064nm
Crystal class
no=1.9721, ne=2.1858, @ 808nm
no=2.0210, ne=2.2560, @ 532nm
Sellmeier Equation (for pure YVO4 crystals):
 no2=3.77834+0.069736/(λ2 - 0.04724) - 0.0108133.λ2
 ne2=4.59905+0.110534/(λ2 - 0.04813) - 0.0122676.λ2

Thermal Optical Coefficient: dna/dT=8.5x10-6/K, dnc/dT=3.0x10-6/K

Stimulated Emission Cross-
Section 25.0x10-19 cm2 , @1064 nm

Fluorescent Lifetime 90 µs (about 50 µs for 2 atm% Nd doped) @ 808 nm

Absorption Coefficient 31.4 cm-1 @ 808 nm
Absorption Length 0.32 mm @ 808 nm
Intrinsic Loss Less 0.1% cm-1 , @1064 nm
Gain Bandwidth 0.96 nm (257 GHz) @ 1064 nm
Polarized Laser Emission π polarization; parallel to optic axis (c-axis)
Diode Pumped Optical to
> 60%
Optical Efficiency

3. Absorption Curves of Different Doping Nd:YVO4

Nd:YVO4 shows high absorption coefficients at pumping wavelengths. Therefore, a crystal

short-in-length (e.g. 1mm) is preferred, and more compact lasers can be constructed by
using Nd:YVO4 than using Nd:YAG. Furthermore, it has a wide and smoothly-varied
bandwidth of absorption, so that it allows of less stringent requirements of diode laser
selection and wavelength control as compared with Nd:YAG. Different doping levels
Nd:YVO4 are shown showed as follow

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Absorption Curve of  0.5% doping YVO4 Absorption Curve of  3% doping YVO4

(Thickness:1 mm) (Thickness:1 mm)

4. Fluorescence Spectra Curve

(a) (b)

Normalized fluorescence spectra from 800 nm to 1600 nm of Nd 1.1 at. % doped Nd:YVO4 for ppolarization
(a) and for s porlarization (b).

5. Laser Properties

 The Nd:YVO4 crystal has large stimulated emission cross-sections (σ) at both 1.06
µm and 1.3 µm. The stimulated emission cross-section of an a-axis cut Nd:YVO4 crystal at
1.064µm is about 4 times that of the Nd:YAG crystal. Although the lifetime (τ) of Nd:YVO4 is
about 2.7 times shorter than that of Nd:YAG, a figure of merit (FOM) for minimum threshold
of a-cut Nd:YVO4, which is proportional to the products, is reasonably higher than that of
Nd:YAG crystal. Because of its high pump quantum efficiency (ηp), the slope efficiency of
Nd:YVO4 can be very high if the laser cavity is properly designed. The following Table lists
the major laser properties of Nd:YVO4 in comparison with those of Nd:YAG.

Laser properties of Nd:YVO4 crystals vs Nd:YAG

Nd doped ó α τ la Pth ηs
Laser crystal
(atm%) (x10 cm2)
-19
(cm-1) (µs) (mm) (mw) ( %)

1.1 31.2 90 0.32

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Nd:YVO4(a-cut) 2 25 72.4 50 0.14 78 48.6

Nd:YVO4(c-cut) 1.1 7 9.2 90 231 45.5
Nd:YAG 0.85 6 7.1 230 1.41 115 38.6

APPLICATION
1. Diode Laser-Pumped Nd:YVO4 Lasers

A threshold of 78 mW and a slope efficiency of 48.5% at 1.064 µm were obtained by

using an a-cut 3 mm long Nd:YVO4 crystal with output coupler R = 96%. Under the same
conditions, a 5 mm long Nd:YAG crystal has a threshold of 115 mW and a slope efficiency
of 38.6%.

Recently, over 30 W of TEM00 output power was achieved by using a-cut Nd:YVO4 and
pumped by 60 W fiber coupled diode lasers. The optical conversion efficiency exceeds
50%. High power and stable infrared output @ 1064 nm and 1342 nm has been available
with diode pumped Nd:YVO4 lasers.

Single-longitudinal-mode oscillation of a Nd:YVO4 microchip laser has been achieved with

high power and high slope efficiency. Such a single mode source has been developed for
the use of a master oscillator for injection locking of Nd laser systems.

Because of its large stimulated emission cross section at 1.34 µm, Nd:YVO4 is also an
efficient laser crystal for diode laser-pumped 1.3 µm laser. By using 1 mm long Nd:YVO4
crystal and pumped by an 850 mW diode laser at 808 nm, 50 mW output at 1.34 µm has
been observed, compared to 34 mW from 2 mm long Nd:YAG.

Basic Experimental Scheme of Diode Laser Pumped Nd:YVO4 Green Laser

2. Frequency-doubled Nd:YVO4 Lasers

™ By using the compact design of Nd:YVO4 + KTP crystals, high power green or red light
output can be generated in a diode laser pumped Nd:YVO4 laser. When pumped by a 890
mW diode laser, more than 76 mW single mode (TEM00) green output was obtained with a
3x3x1 mm3 Nd:YVO4 and a 3x3x5 mm3 intracavity KTP.

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™Diode pumped green lasers has been commercialized with the compact design of
Nd:YVO4 + KTP crystals. 2.5 mW green output was achieved in a Nd:YVO4 microchip laser
with a very short (9 mm) laser cavity when pumped by a 50 mW diode laser.

™Over 10 W and high stable CW green output @ 532 nm was commerially available with
diode pumped Nd:YVO4 and frequency double using NCPM LBO crystals. Sigle longitudinal
mode (SLM) green output, Q-switched green and UV outputs were also obtained.

™Over 400 mW blue laser @ 457 nm based on Nd:YVO4+ BBO crystals, is commerical
available .

Standard Specs and Note

Standard Specs. of CASIX's Nd:YVO4 Crystals

Nd: Dopant Level 0.1 - 3.0 atm%

Standard Dimensions 3x3x3 mm3, 3x3x1 mm3, 3x3x0.5 mm3
Wavefront Distortion < λ/8 at 633 nm
Scattering Sites invisible, probed with a He-Ne laser
Orientation ¡À0.5 deg
Dimensional Tolerance +0.1/-0.1 mm
End-faces Configuration Plano/Plano
Surface quality 10/5 Scratch/Dig per MIL-O-13830B
Flatness λ/10 at 633 nm
Clear Aperture > Central 90%
Parallelism < 10 arc sec.
Intrinsic Loss < 0.1% cm-1

Note

1. Other specifications of Nd:YVO4 crystals and coatings are available upon request.

2. Tm:YVO4 crystal for eyesafe and medical lasers @ 1940 nm, Er:YVO4, Yb:YVO4 and
other ion doped YVO4 crystals are also grown by CASIX.

CASIX provides the complete diode pumped laser kits, including laser crystals (Nd:YVO4
and Nd:YAG), NLO crystals (KTP, or LBO and BBO) and laser optics. Please refer to page
62 for information about diode pumped laser optics kits.

Copyright 1998 CASIX, Inc. All rights reserved. Last Revised: May 19, 1999
Web Page maintained by : [email protected]

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