Ho: GdVO₄ crystal is the host material for the production of laser working in the middle infrared range. In this contribution, the characteristic parameters of the Ho: GdVO₄ crystal were measured, and the material was used as a gain medium to build a diode-pumped laser for the first time, to reach a laser output at 2047.9 nm. The output beam quality factor M² was measured to be 1.4 and 1.3 in x-direction and y-direction, respectively. In addition, the influence of the transmittance of the output mirror on the generation of laser was obtained through exploration. The results showed that the laser wavelength blue-shifted as the output transmittance increased.

In this study, an Er:YAG laser pumped intra-cavity Tm:YAG-Ho:GdVO₄ laser was built and debuted at room temperature. At an incident pump power of 9.2 W, this laser obtained a maximum output power of 1.6 W with a slope efficiency of 28.0%. Additionally, the M² factors at the maximum output power were measured to be 1.06 and 1.03 in the x and y directions, respectively. The results showed that the intra-cavity pumping method of combining thulium and holmium crystals as the gain medium was an effective way to obtain a 2 μm laser with near diffraction limited beam quality.