The Livermore team is also exploring new forming techniques (e.g. extrusion molding) which have the capacity to create more diverse, and possibly more complicated, shapes. These include shells and tubes for improved coupling to the pump light and for more efficient heat transfer. In addition, different materials can be co-extruded and then sintered into a monolithic transparent solid. An amplifier slab can formed so that part of the structure acts in guided lightwave transmission in order to focus pump light from laser diodes into regions with a high concentration of dopant ions near the slab center.