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The semiconductor disk laser, a relatively novel type of light oscillators, is now under intensive development. These lasers produce an excellent beam quality in conjunction with a scalable output power. This paper presents recent achievements in power scalability, mode-locking and frequency conversion with optically-pumped semiconductor disk lasers. A novel concept for power scaling described here allows the thermal load of the gain material to be reduced, increasing the threshold of rollover and extending the capability for boosting the output power without degradation in the beam quality. The proposed technique is based on the multiple gain scheme. The total power of over 8 W was achieved in dual-gain configuration, while one-gain lasers could produce separately up to 4 W, limited by the thermal rollover of the output characteristics. The results show that the reduced thermal load to a gain element in a dual-gain cavity allows extending the range of usable pump powers boosting the laser output. Orange-red radiation required for a number of challenging applications can be produced through frequency-doubling using a GaInNAs/GaAs laser. Using such a disk laser operating at a fundamental wavelength of 1224 nm, we demonstrate an output power of 2.68 W in the visible region with an optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 7.4%. The frequency-converted signal could be launched into a single-mode optical fibre with 70%-78% coupling efficiency, demonstrating good beam quality for the visible radiation. Using a Fabry-Perot glass etalon, the emission wavelength could be tuned over an 8-nm spectral range. We report on optically-pumped disk lasers passively mode-locked with a semiconductor saturable-absorber mirror. The potential of harmonic mode-locking in producing pulse trains at multigigahertz repetition rates has been explored. The mode-locked disk laser is investigated for different designs of the gain medium that allow bistable mode-locking to be controlled. An explanation for hysteresis of mode-locking is given based on a laser model including saturable absorption and unsaturated gain in a semiconductor oscillator operating in pulsed regime. (invited paper)