We studied several crystals of Yb-doped LuVO 4 with different orientations (a-cut and c-cut) in order to evaluate the potential of this new laser material for high power continuous-wave operation using simple hemispherical cavities, longitudinally pumped by a fiber coupled diode laser. We achieved substantial improvement with respect to previous results in terms of output power and slope efficiency. The highest output power and optical efficiency were obtained for the π-polarization using a-cut samples. Bistability of the input-output power characteristics in terms of a hysteresis loop was also observed. Significant intensity fluctuations were found existing in a small operational region near the critical point (up-threshold) of the bistability region. The heating of the crystal is reduced in the lasing state when stimulated emission keeps the part of the radiative relaxation high in comparison to the nonradiative relaxation processes.
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