New concepts for diode-pumped solid-state lasers

Solid-state lasers are attractive sources of coherent radiation for various scientific and technological applications. But the different fields of app lications increasingly demand more powerful, efficient, and rugged lasers w ith higher beam quality. Hence, at present a new generation of laser system s, based on diode lasers, has begun to dominate. Through replacement of the discharge lamps formerly used as pump sources by diode lasers, the inheren t advantages of the latter regarding compactness, efficiency, and reliabili ty are directly transferred to the laser system as a whole. Moreover, the d iode lasers allow for the realization of completely new laser concepts, and as a consequence, for the demonstration of laser output parameters that we re not accessible so far. After a short introduction to the field of solid- state lasers, we will focus on two very promising examples of these new con cepts, namely the fiber laser and the thin-disk laser, which have attracted much attention recently.