Optically pumped vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs), also called semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs), benefit from the flexibility and versatility of the semiconductor material. With a simple cavity layout, fundamental transverse mode operation with a circular output beam and high beam quality is possible. They have excellent heat-sink properties and only require inexpensive multimode diode lasers for pumping. The complete VECSEL structure is only a few micrometers thick which leads to a strong ...

Applications based on nano- and microscaled systems have become indispensable in many aspects in everyday life, industry, research and medicine. In this regard, thin film technology plays a crucial role with the physical properties of solids changing significantly when they are reduced to thin layers with thicknesses in the nanometer range. In this regime, a solid’s microstructure as well as boundary and surface effects start to dominate. A prominent example is the exchange bias effect, which results due to the ...