Future prospects of laser diodes and fiber lasers

For the next century we should develop new concepts for coherent control of light generation and propagation. Owing to the recent development of ultra fine structures in semiconductor lasers, fiber lasers, and various kinds of waveguide structure, we can make optical devices which control the light propagation artificially. But, the phase locking and phase control of multiple laser oscillators are one of the most important directions of laser science and technology. The coherent summation has been a dream of laser since 1960. Is it possible to solve this old and quite challenging problem for laser science? This is also a very basic concept because the laser action based on the stimulated emission is the process of coherent summation of huge number of photons emitted from individual atoms. In this paper, I discuss the fundamental direction of laser research in the next ten or twenty years. The active optics and laser technology should be combined intrinsically in near future. (author)