5.3 W Nd:YVO4 passively mode locked laser by a novel semiconductor saturable abs

We report a diode end-pumped continuous wave (CW) passively mode-locked Nd:YVO4 laser with a home-made semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM). The maximum average output power is 5.3 W at the incident pump power of 17 W, which corresponds to an optical-optical conversion efficiency of 31.2%