Due to their unique advantages, such as high efficiency, reliability, flexibility, and robust configuration, solid-state lasers have experienced rapid development in recent years, resulting in tremendous new applications being induced. To provide a comprehensive view of the latest advances in the field, the Research Topic Advanced high-power solid-state laser technology was launched in 2023, which accepted eight high-quality articles [1]. After the success of that Research Topic, novel concepts/designs and applications have continued to emerge, which prompted the present Research Topic (Advanced high-power solid-state laser technology II). This Research Topic aims to provide a showcase for the latest progress in solid-state laser development, along with the most recent applications. In total, four high-quality studies have been accepted for publication: They are representative of the latest technology advances, and we believe that the readers will find them inspiring and enlightening. We are thankful to all the authors and reviewers for their excellent contributions and appreciate the outstanding work of the Frontiers staff during the launch of this Research Topic and during the review and production processes.
Fiber lasers and amplifiers are one of the important branches of solid-state lasers that have attracted significant attention [2, 3] in both the continuous-wave and pulse regimes. Two articles on fiber lasers appear in this Research Topic with interesting phenomena and outstanding results. It is well known that mode instability (MI) is one of the most limiting factors for average power scaling of fiber lasers with a near-diffraction-limited beam quality, which is one of the hottest Research Topic in the high-power fiber laser community [4, 5]. Shu et al. investigated the influence of MI on polarization extinction ratio (PER) in a 2-kW-level, backward-pumped, polarization-maintained fiber laser system, with different PER behaviors reported compared to forward-pumped ones [6, 7]. No decrease in PER was observed with the onset of MI, revealing that the MI effect has little impact on PER in backward-pumped PM fiber amplifiers. This discrepancy is attributed to the difference in the longitudinal distribution of high-order modes induced by the MI effect, which can shed some light on the physical understanding of MI and help resolve the ongoing debate/confusion about MI. Another contribution was focused on pulse fiber lasers, which have a wide range of scientific and industrial applications in material processing and remote sensing [8]. A general study of the maximum pulse energy from fiber amplifiers with short durations was carried out by Bingham et al. in a monolithic master oscillator power amplifier by varying the pulse duration, repetition rate, and fiber length using an in-house fabricated ytterbium-doped double-clad 50/250 fiber. The authors demonstrated ∼20 ns pulses at ∼1.5 mJ, a 100 kHz repetition rate, and a ∼200 W average power with an M2 ∼1.1. This is the first systematic study of the pulse energy limit from a diffraction-limited fiber MOPA.
A high-quality pulse mid-infrared laser of approximately 3 μm has broad scientific and practical applications, and the 2.79 μm wavelength is widely used in biomedicine [9]. Passive Q-switching has gained significant attention due to its simple structure, the absence of external modulators, ease of miniaturization, and robustness against electromagnetic interference. Saturable absorber materials suitable for passive Q-switching in the 2.79 μm spectral region are critical components. Wang et al. validated the feasibility of using pure water as a saturable absorber with absorption darkening at 2.79 μm, and controllable outputs of Q-switched single pulses and multi-pulses with microsecond intervals were achieved in a 2.79 μm Er, Cr: YSGG laser by designing a device to control the thickness of micron-scale water layers. With a water layer thickness of 7 μm and a repetition rate of 20 Hz, a maximum energy of 0.78 mJ in the multi-pulse operation was reached, while the shortest single-pulse width was 286 ns. This provides a reference for the use of pure water as a saturable absorber while stimulating the study of other hydroxyl-based saturable absorber materials.
The final contribution to this Research Topic discusses the key applications of solid-state lasers, Raman spectroscopy technology [10]. In the study, an Nd: YAG laser was employed as the fundamental frequency laser, and the wavelength of the third harmonic generation was 355 nm. Using the frequency-tripled laser, Wang et al. established a compact and stable diagnostic system that employs Raman scattering to measure various parameters in the combustion flow field, such as the concentrations of major species and temperature. The spatial resolution was found to be 3 mm × 0.2 mm × 0.2 mm with one-dimensional measurements available, and the device exhibited good resistance to adverse environments.
In summary, this Research Topic showcases some of the latest breakthroughs in the field and demonstrates the sustainable advancement of high-power solid-state lasers. It is evident that high-power solid-state lasers and their applications are still evolving, and continuous and impressive progress has been achieved, especially with regard to crystal and fiber lasers. We trust that these developments will open new avenues in the future and have a far-reaching impact on a wide array of fields.
Statements
Author contributions
RT: Writing – original draft. OA: Writing – review and editing. PM: Writing – review and editing. HM: Writing – review and editing.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.
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References
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TaoRMWangXLZhouP. Comprehensive theoretical study of mode instability in high-power fiber lasers by employing a universal model and its implications. IEEE J Sel Top Quan Electron (2018) 24:1–19. 10.1109/jstqe.2018.2811909
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TaoRMZhangCXieLHLiFYChuQHHuangL. Mode instability in coiled high power fibre amplifiers: revisiting with a modified theoretical model. J Phys Photon (2026) 8:015049. 10.1088/2515-7647/ae2f0e
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WirthCSchmidtOTsybinISchreiberTEberhardtRLimpertJet alHigh average power spectral beam combining of four fiber amplifiers to 8.2kW. Opt Lett (2011) 36:3118–20. 10.1364/OL.36.003118
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TaoRMMaPFWangXLZhouPLiuZJ. 1.3 kW monolithic linearly polarized single-mode master oscillator power amplifier and strategies for mitigating mode instabilities. Photon Res (2015) 3:86–93. 10.1364/prj.3.000086
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DongLSamsonB. Fiber lasers: basics, technology and applications. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press (2017).
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ZhangHLiYLWuQT. 2.79 μm LGS electro-optical Q-switched Er,Cr:YSGG laser.Opt Commun (2022) 503:127448. 10.1016/j.optcom.2021.127448
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Summary
Keywords
fiber lasers, high power, mid-infrared laser, Raman spectroscopy, solid-state lasers
Citation
Tao R, Antipov O, Ma P and Ma H (2026) Editorial: Advanced high power solid-state laser technology, volume II. Front. Phys. 14:1856933. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2026.1856933
Received
15 April 2026
Revised
15 April 2026
Accepted
16 April 2026
Published
06 May 2026
Volume
14 - 2026
Edited and reviewed by
Antonio Riveiro Rodriguez, University of Vigo, Spain
Updates
Copyright
© 2026 Tao, Antipov, Ma and Ma.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Rumao Tao, supertaozhi@163.com; Oleg Antipov, oleg_antipov@yahoo.com; Pengfei Ma, shandapengfei@126.com; Haotong Ma, mahaotong@163.com
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.