A diode-pump solid-state laser system emitting a 532 nm beam has been developed. The pump source is an 808 nm diode laser, which has gained wide acceptance in research as well as in commercial production due to its effectiveness and reasonable price. The active medium was chosen to be Nd:YVO₄ (neodymium-doped yttrium orthovanadate), a material with many advantages over traditional Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet) such as a low lasing threshold and linearly polarized beam. However, the thermal conductivity of Nd:YVO₄ is not as good as Nd:YAG, thus the thermal lens effect inside Nd:YVO₄ under high pumping intensity becomes severe and detrimental to the laser performance. Our work showed that careful adjustments of Nd:YVO₄ temperature as well as of the cavity's parameters played an important role in the performance of the laser. Potassium titanyl phosphate (KTP), a nonlinear optics crystal, was used to convert the fundamental 1064 nm laser radiation from Nd:YVO₄ into 532 nm. The 532 nm laser beam has been successfully proven to cut wood, plastic and aluminum.