Experimental study of continuous-wave and Q-switched laser performances of Ho:YVO4 crystal

In this letter, we report a Ho:YVO4 laser pumped by a 1.94-?m laser in both continuous-wave (CW) and Q-switched modes. The output performance of the Ho:YVO_4 laser is compared with different output coupler transmissions. By use of the output coupler transmissions of T=30%, we obtain the maximum CW output power of 3.9 W at 2052 nm, with beam quality factor of M^2=1.09 for the absorbed pump power of 12.5 W. For the Q-switched mode, we achieve maximum output energy per pulse of 0.38 mJ and the minimum pulse width of 25 ns, corresponding to the peak power of 15.2 kW.