The disk laser (sometimes called thin-disc laser or active-mirror laser) is a special kind of diode-pumped high-power solid-state laser, which was introduced in the 1990s by the group of Adolf Giesen at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

1. DISK LASERS
ANKIT KUMAR PANDEY
NIT DELHI

2. WHAT ARE DISK-LASERS?
 Also called active mirrors[1].
 It is a type of diode pumped solid-state laser.
 Despite their name, disk lasers do not have to be circular.
The thickness of the disk is considerably smaller than the
laser beam diameter.

3.  The main difference from conventional rod lasers is the
geometry of the gain medium : the laser crystal is a thin
disk, where the thickness is considerably smaller than
the laser beam diameter.

4.  Also known as optically pumped semiconductor vertical external cavity
surface emitting laser.

5. THE DISK LASER TECHNOLOGY

6. ADVANTAGES:
 Reduced Thermal Issues at High Output Powers
 Power Scalability.[3]
 Energy efficiency of > 30 %
 Power levels from 1 to 16 kW.
DISADVANTAGES:
 Spatial hole burning-a distortion of the gain shape
in a laser medium.

7. APPLICATIONS:
 Generation of ultra-short pulses at very high power
levels.
 Can also be used for regenerative amplifiers.
 Pump sources for optical parametric
oscillators, amplifiers and generators.
 Used for medical treatment as well as for micro or
macro machining in the industry.

8. REFERENCES:
[1]J. A. Abate et al., “Active Mirror: a large-aperture
medium repetition rate Nd:glass amplifier”, Appl. Opt.
20 (2), 351 (1981).
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_laser
[3] A. Giesen et al., “Scalable concept for diode-pumped
high-power solid-state lasers”, Appl. Phys. B 58, 363
(1994)
[4] http://www.rp-photonics.com/thin_disk_lasers.html