A comparative study on diode-pumped single-frequency Tm:YAG and Tm:GdVO4 lasers

In this paper, we present experimental results concerning on the laser characteristics of Tm:YAG laser and Tm: GdVO4 laser. At room temperature, the maximum output power of Tm:YAG laser and Tm:GdVO4 laser is 210 and 145 mW, respectively. High efficiency can be achieved for both lasers at room temperature. Nevertheless, compared with Tm:GdVO4 laser, Tm:YAG laser can operate on single frequency with high power easily. As much as 60 mW of 2013.9 nm single-longitudinal-mode (SLM) laser was achieved for Tm:YAG laser. For Tm:GdVO4 laser 51 mW of 1919.7 nm SLM laser was achieved. The SLM Tm:YAG laser is better for using as a seed laser for coherent wind measurements and differential absorption LIDAR systems.