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348 So l i d - S t at e La s e r s Ultrafast Lasers in Thin-Disk Geometry 349

technology. Even average output power levels exceeding 10 W can be
expected in the near future. Recently a MIXSEL already achieved an
average output power of 6.4 W. In comparison to the mode-locked
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solid-state TDLs, these semiconductor disk lasers access substantially
higher repetition rates in the gigahertz regime. An important future
research task is the demonstration of femtosecond-pulse durations at
high power levels. Although sub-100-fs pulses have already been
demonstrated, it will be challenging to achieve such performance at
the watt level, which is a requirement for many applications. Ultra-
fast VECSELs have a large potential for the realization of robust, cost-
efficient, ultracompact sources. The simple, straight MIXSEL cavity
geometry should allow a further increase in repetition rates to the
10 to 100-GHz regime. Ultrafast VECSELs and MIXSELs appear well
suited for replacing more complex solid-state lasers for many appli-
cations in areas as diverse as telecommunications, optical clocking,
frequency metrology, and microscopy.

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