The history of the laser device remembers the difficulties of promoting coherent source of radio waves into the optical range. To overcome them required a transition to a completely new technology, it was necessary to organize the search for new materials with suitable energy bands for optical waves generation. Among the many generating materials, very few are actually used in laser devices. Others with very low-power characteristics are suitable only for demonstration of the laser effect. The review is based on the work carried out at the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Research Center of Laser Materials and Technologies of A.M.Prokhorov (GPI RAS RC LMT).