Temperature dependence of the fractional thermal load of Nd:YVO4 at 1064 nm lasing and its influence on laser performance.

Temperature dependence of thermal effect for neodymium doped yttrium orthovanadate crystal is quantified by measuring its dioptric power. With the boundary temperature range from 293 K to 353 K, the increase of fractional thermal load (lasing at 1064 nm, pumping at 888 nm) is from 16.9% to 24.9% with lasing, which is attributed to the rise of upconversion parameter and thermal conductivity. The influence of the boundary temperature on the output characteristic of a high-power single frequency laser is also investigated. The maximum output power decreases from 25.3 W to 13.5 W with the increase of boundary temperature from 293 K to 353 K. Analysis results indicate that further power scaling can be achieved by controlling the Nd:YVO(4) temperature to a lower.