The technique of laser ignition via a plasma spark has reached a high degree of maturity. It allows the improvement of performance of large MW gas engines: higher ignition pressures, capability for ignition of leanest mixtures, lower NOx content in the exhaust, higher efficiency, better running smoothness (COV coefficient of variation), potential longer durability, however higher cost until now. The application towards implementation in cars, especially in case of direct gasoline injection, still suffers from several problems, e.g. the requirement of specification for a wide operation temperature range, the necessary compactness and, of course being even more crucial in this case, cost. Application towards turbine and rocket ignition is also under development. For all these cases of innovative ignition systems improvements or even better, novel developments in laser technology are required. Besides some concepts for central lasers emitting ns pulses to be distributed to several ignition points, different versions of laser sparkplugs have been developed as a more compact alternative. The most advanced ones potentially will be pumped by 2-D power VCSELs (vertical cavity surface emitting laser) arrays which can be easily and cheaply collimated and coupled into the laser medium. Temperature sensitivity of the whole system pump diode and Qswitched solid-state laser still represents a major challenge. Keywords – Laser plasma, laser sparkplug, laser ignition of engines, Q-switched Nd:YAG laser, diode pumping by VCSELs