Disk laser

A disk laser or active mirror (Fig.1) is a type of diode pumped solid-state laser characterized by a heat sink and laser output that are realized on opposite sides of a thin layer of active gain medium. Despite their name, disk lasers do not have to be circular; other shapes have also been tried. The thickness of the disk is considerably smaller than the laser beam diameter. Initially, this laser cavity configuration had been proposed and realized experimentally for thin slice semiconductor lasers.

Not to be confused with LaserDisc, the large disk-shaped optical storage medium, or, fiber laser disks, disk-shaped coils of fiber laser.

The disk laser concepts allow very high average and peak powers due to its large area, leading to moderate power densities on the active material.

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