Diode pumped alkali laser (DPAL) have been rapidly developed because of their high Stokes efficiency, good beam quality, compact size, and near-infrared emission wavelengths. As typical three-level lasers, the DPAL can be irradiated at the wavelengths of 895nm (Cs), 795nm (Ru), and 770nm (K), respectively. The laser kinetics and important research development are concluded in this paper, and the theoretical and experimental studies of our group are also introduced. Then, some problems and difficulties in this field have been discussed. Finally, we analyzed the development trend of DPAL in the near future.