Abstract

Nd:vanadate crystals (Nd:YVO₄ or Nd:GdVO₄) are generally used for laser emission around 1064 nm, 1340 nm or 914 nm. In this last case, the laser system is a quasi-three level one, the lower laser level of the transition being the highest sublevel of the fundamental manifold. However, the fluorescence spectra of vanadate crystals show another peak emission around 880 nm [1], corresponding to a true three level laser system, emission involving the ⁴F_3/2 level and the ground state laser ⁴I_9/2. This transition has already been used to pumped Nd:GdVO₄ crystal [2], but never been used for laser emission. In this paper, we investigated three level operation with Nd: YVO₄ and Nd:GdVO₄ crystals.

© 2007 IEEE