The extraction of high power with high beam quality from semiconductor lasers has long been a goal of semiconductor laser research. Optically pumped vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VECSELs) have already shown the potential for their high power high brightness operation. In addition, the macroscopic nature of the external cavity in these lasers makes intracavity nonlinear frequency conversion quite convenient. High-power high-brightness VECSELs with wavelength flexibility enlarge their applica-tions. The drawbacks of the VECSELs are their poor spectral characteristics, thermal-induced wavelength shift and a few-nm-wide linewidth.The objective of this dissertation is to investigate tunable high-power high-brightness VECSELs with spectral and polarization control. The low gain and microcavity reson-ance of the VECSEL are the major challenges for developing tunable high-power VECSELs with large tunability. To overcome these challenges, the V-shaped cavity, where the anti-reflection coated VECSEL chip serves as a folding mirror, and an extremely low-loss (at tuned wavelength) intracavity birefringent filter at Brewster's angle are employed to achieved the high gain, low-loss wavelength selectivity and the elimination of microcavity. This cavity results in multi-watt TEM00 VECSELs with a wavelength tuning range of 20~30 nm about 975 nm. Also the longitudinal mode discrimination introduced by birefringent filter makes the linewidth narrow down to 0.5 nm. After the tunable linearly polarized fundamental beam is achieved, the tunable blue-green VECSELs are demonstrated by using type I intracavity second-harmonic generation. The spectral control of VECSELs makes it possible to apply them as an efficient pump source for Er/Yb codoped single-mode fiber laser and to realize the spectral beam combining for multi-wavelength high- brightness power scaling.In this dissertation, theory, design, fabrication and characterization are presented. Rigorous microscopic many-body theory of the quantum well gain, based on semiconductor Bloch equations and k.p theory, is introduced. The closed loop design tool based on this theory is not only used to design the VECSEL structure, but also used as a precise on-wafer diagnostics tool by the experiment/theory comparison of the photo-luminescence. The characterization of the wafer shows that the modeling is in good agreement with the measured results.The VECSEL high power high brightness performance relies on the fabrication of the chip. The fabrication method of the VECSEL chip, which provides the optically smooth surface and good heat dissipation, is presented. The anti-reflection coating on the chip surface can significantly improve the slope efficiency of VECSEL when high reflectivity output coupler is used. Over 12-W VECSEL cw output power with 43 % slope efficiency is demonstrated at 0 oC. A beam quality factor (M^2 factor) of 1.75 is obtained at 11 W output power.

Optical frequency standards with the reference to a narrow electronic transition of a laser-cooled collection of neutral atomic particles are becoming essential tools of research in modern precision physics experiments. In the core of a building block of an optical frequency standard is the optical continuous wave laser that has a good spectral purity of the emitted light. Such a stable optical oscillator is highly desirable in high resolution spectroscopy, if it emits in a good quality beam at a short visible wavelength. This Master thesis explores efficient techniques for building such an optical frequency source intended for use in the cooling and trapping of Calcium atoms scheme. The strong dipole transition at the blue wavelength in the atomic Calcium is needed to reduce the kinetic energy of atoms by nearly six orders of magnitude. A further reduction in the thermal energy of the laser cooled atoms is required to locate with ultra-high precision the 400 Hz narrow clock transition of the stable 40Ca isotope. The experimental methods that achieve this and approach sub-microkelvin temperature of the laser cooled bosonic isotopes of alkaline earths are inspected. The blue laser with a uniform intensity distribution in the beam is useful to maintain the trapped number of cold atoms during these experiments. The spectroscopic properties of the relative transitions in Calcium atom are also reviewed following relevant publications in the area. The constructed blue laser can be used as a primary wavelength source in the lasers network for cooling and trapping of Calcium atoms. These experiments will constitute part of the project to build an optical atom clock referenced to 40Ca narrow linewidth transition. The blue laser is constructed by generating second harmonic in a Potassium Niobate crystal, which is temperature controlled to use a type-I noncritical phase-matching of the optical nonlinear process. The power of the intracavity-generated second harmonic depends on the resonance properties of the optical resonator where this nonlinear crystal is placed. The study is aimed at characterising the designed optical resonator and the experimental parameters that describe it. The formula is derived that relates the resonance power enhancement coefficient with finesse and the power coupling contrast of a passive optical cavity. The obtained relationship is verfied during the experiments. The produced efficiency of the intracavity second harmonic generation is approx. 0.0023 mWblue/(mWred)2. The research work also examines the noise characteristics of the infrared diode laser that is used as a pump source for the intracavity generated second harmonic and determines the spectroscopic precision of the produced blue light. The frequency locking experiment is analysed using the unbalanced scheme of the polarisation stabilisation technique. The designed optical buildup cavity became a part of the unbalanced frequency discriminator in such a scheme. The results demonstrate high gain of frequency noise suppression of the stabilised laser. The unbalanced arrangement of the H}ansch-Couillaud technique has been possible due to a very low amplitude noise of semiconductor lasers.