Current status and development trends of disk laser technology

This paper highlights unique advantages of the disk laser technology for converting the moderate brilliance of laser diodes into excellent solid state laser beam quality with high efficiency. In contrast to traditional diode pumped solid state lasers, particularly all relevant fluencies remain constant when the power is scaled by increasing the active area of the disk. The state of the art TRUMPF disk laser family is presented, including latest results. Theoretical and practical limits are discussed and an outlook over new disk laser generations including high power cw, q-switched, and amplified systems is given.