Continuous wave Nd:LuVO4-LBO blue laser under direct 888 nm diode laser pumping

We report the efficient blue laser at 458 nm generation by intracavity frequency doubling of a continuous wave (CW) laser operation of a diode pumped Nd:LuVO₄ laser on the ⁴ F _3/2 → ⁴ I _9/2 transition at 916 nm. An LiB₃O₅ (LBO) crystal, cut for critical type I phase matching at room temperature is used for second harmonic generation of the laser. At an incident pump power of 18.2 W, as high as 1.73 W of continuous wave (CW) output power at 458 nm is achieved. The optical-to-optical conversion efficiency is up to 9.5%, and the fluctuation of the red output power was better than 3.5% in the given 30 min.