Developments In Solid State Lasers

The past 2–3 years has seen an accelerated pace of research and development in solid state lasers. Particularly active is the research into tunable solid state lasers and it is interesting to note how, in the laser’s 25th anniversary year, a great deal of attention is currently being paid to close relations of ruby, the first laser medium. Another spur to activity is the realisation that solid state lasers are potentially capable of high efficiency, in the region of 10%, and very high average powers should also be attainable (1). A further area of rapid growth involves Nd lasers (NdYAG in particular) pumped by GaAlAs laser diodes. This provides a very compact, efficient and long lived source. With the further prospect of power increases and price decreases the scope for application of such lasers is clearly considerable.