Neodymium-doped yttrium vanadate (Nd:_YVO4 or ^Nd3+:_YVO4) is one of the most effective and well-known materials for diode-pumped lasers. Compact Nd:_YVO4 lasers with outgoing green, red and blue beams are perfect for materials processing, spectroscopy, medical diagnostics, laser printing and other applications. Compared to Nd:YAG or Nd:YLF, Nd:_YVO4 has a broader absorption band, lower laser threshold, high slope efficiency, large luminescence cross-section, linearly polarized emission and a single-mode output beam. Yttrium vanadate doped with erbium or ytterbium emits at 1.54µm and 1.61µm wavelength and is suitable for eye-safe applications.

In contrast to ^Er3+ or ^Yb3+ doped phosphate glass, ^Er3+,^Yb3+:_YVO4 crystals can be operated in cw mode with high pumping energies and high efficiency. Its thermal conductivity is much higher than that of glass and this improves the pumping characteristics as well as the cooling requirements. ^Yb3+:_YVO4 has a broad absorption bandwidth at 0.98µm and is highly efficient at 1.02µm due to the low pump losses. New ^Nd3+ doped gadolinium vanadate crystals (^Nd3+:_GdVO4) allow new effective diode-pumped applications in medicine and technology.