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262 So l i d - S t at e La s e r s Thin-Disc Lasers 263

highest efficiency and excellent beam quality, simultaneously. Nearly
all operational modes of solid-state lasers, including continuous
wave, pulsed operation with pulse durations between femtoseconds
and nanoseconds, as well as laser amplifiers can be built with this
design with better properties as compared with other designs.
In future, new materials will be investigated with the goal of fur-
ther increasing the power, energy, and beam quality. Laser output
powers of more than 10 kW and energies of more than 1 J will be pos-
sible. New materials will open new markets for new wavelengths.

Acknowledgments
Our special thanks go to some 20 scientists, the technicians and numer-
ous students who have worked on the thin-disc laser design since
1992 making possible the results summarized in this paper. Without
their enormous commitment these results were not possible.

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