Abstract: A high power high beam quality vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) side-pumped rod Nd:YAG laser oscillator is demonstrated. Based on the macro-channel optimization of the active heat sink for the VCSEL pump source, five 227 W VCSEL linear arrays are manufactured. By optimizing the structure of the side-pumped diffuse chamber, a rod laser module with an output capacity of 480 W and 49.7% optical-to-optical efficiency is developed. Accordingly, a telescopic module is introduced in the laser oscillator to realize a large fundamental mode volume, and thermal-near-unstable parameters is further optimized to suppress higher transversal modes. Finally, an output power of 114 W is obtained with an average beam quality factor M² of 1.42, and the power variations are ± 0.9% over 200 s and ± 4.2% over the temperature range from 18 ℃ to 26 ℃. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a hundred-watt level and near diffraction limit beam quality laser is generated by VCSEL pumped scheme. Due to the excellent temperature stability of the VCSEL, this high-power and high beam quality solid-state laser has a promising competence in industry, space and other complicated environments.