ABSTRACT
Since 1990 we have observed tremendous progress in picosecond and femtosecond pulse generation using solid-state lasers. Today ultrashort-pulse lasers are normally based on solid-state lasers, which provide sufficiently high average powers to efficiently generate many other frequencies with nonlinear frequency conversion schemes such as second harmonic to high harmonic generation, optical parametric oscillation, and amplification. The emphasis of this chapter is to give an updated review of the progress in pulsed solidstate lasers during the last ten years. Our goal is to give also to the non-expert an efficient starting point to enter into this field without providing all the detailed derivations. Relevant and useful references for further information are provided throughout the chapter.
