The amazing progress of high-power ultrafast thin-disk lasers

Ultrafast lasers continue to be at the forefront of many scientific breakthroughs and technological achievements and progress in the performance of these systems continue to open doors in many new and exciting interdisciplinary fields. In particular, in the last decade, the average power of ultrafast lasers has seen a significant increase, opening up exciting new perspectives. Among the different technologies that have shaped these advances, thin-disk lasers have generated particularly spectacular breakthroughs. We review here the latest state-of-the-art of the technology and highlight new application fields of these cutting-edge laser systems.