Continuous-wave intracavity Raman laser at 1179.5 nm with SrWO4 Raman crystal in diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser

We report a continuous-wave intracavity Raman laser at 1179.5 nm with a SrWO4 Raman crystal in a diode-end-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser. The highest output power of 2.23 W is obtained at the laser diode power of 21.2 W corresponding to the slope efficiency of 17.3% and a diode-to-stokes optical conversion efficiency of 10.5%. The dependence of the Raman laser performance on the pump polarization is also studied. The measured Raman thresholds are about 9.3 and 8.3 W in the diode pump laser power for the a- and b-polarized configurations, respectively. The Raman gain coefficients of the c-cut SrWO4 crystal for a- and b-polarized pumps are estimated to be about 4.9 and 4.7 cm/GW, respectively.