<DIV>Solid state lasers are widely used in medicine, industry, scientific research, military and remote sensing applications. They comprise a dominant part of the overall laser market and are quickly replacing gas lasers for many applications due to their desirable characteristics such as good reliability and robustness, a high level of safety, user friendliness, compact size and a low cost to performance ratio. They can be maintenance free, suitable for high volume production and they are becoming available in a wide range of wavelengths. <br><BR>Leading contributing specialists cover solid state laser materials, such as fluoride laser crystals, oxide laser ceramics and neodymium and erbium laser glasses, review solid state laser systems including microchip lasers, fiber lasers, raman lasers and cryogenic lasers and finally go over medical, environmental and military and counter-terrorism applications of solid-state lasers.</div>