Substantial progress has been made overseas in diode-pumped solid-state lasers during these 10 years since the emergence of a high-power diode arrays in mid-eighties. Recently, the CW output power at 1.06 μm has exceeded 300 W in a multimode-operation and the CW power of 20 W has been obtained in a single frequency operation. A high-beam-quality, 1 kW high average power, repetitively pulsed laser system is also being developed. This article reviews recent progress in high-power diode-pumped solid state lasers in the world, including Q-switched lasers, with particular interest in their industrial applications, such as laser materials processing.
