Special issue of the 7th International Conference on Tunable Diode Laser Spectroscopy, held July 13-17, 2009 in Zermatt, Switzerland. The purpose of these meetings was to report and discuss the progress that has been made in the technical development of diode lasers and their applications in areas of fundamental research as well as real world applications of the technology. This was accomplished in a format encouraging strong interaction between researchers, device developers and semiconductor laser manufacturers. The relevant technologies include the original lead salt lasers, near-infrared diode lasers and the latest developments in mid-infrared quantum and interband cascade lasers, as well as nonlinear optical schemes.