Recent advances in VECSELs

Within the last two decades, vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) have attracted rising interest from both industry and science. They have proven to be versatile lasers which can be specifically designed for research and applications that require a particular regime of operation. Various emission schemes ranging from narrow-linewidth emission, pulsed light or multimode emission to a frequency-converted output are feasible owing to remarkable device features. Being composed of a semiconductor gain mirror and an external cavity, not only is a unique access to high-brightness output and a high-beam quality is provided, but also wavelength flexibility. Moreover, the exploitation of intra-cavity frequency conversion further extends the accessible spectral range from the ultraviolet (UV) to the terahertz (THz). In this work, recent advances in the field of VECSELs are highlighted.