Diode-pumped Nd:LGS laser emitting at 888 nm

We present what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first diode-pumped Nd:La₃Ga₅SiO₁₄ (Nd:LGS) laser emitting at 888 nm, based on the ⁴ F _3/2-⁴ I _9/2 transition, generally used for a 904 nm emission. The use of a pump module with 16 passes through the crystal allowed the realization of a Nd:LGS thin-disk laser with 1.41 W of continuous wave (cw) output power at 888 nm. Moreover, intracavity second-harmonic generation (SHG) in cw mode has also been demonstrated with a power of 221 mW at 444 nm by using a BiB₃O₆ (BiBO) nonlinear crystal.