Advances In Ultrafast Optics

Being the most active field in modern physics, Optical Physics has developed many new branches and interdisciplinary fields overlapping with various classical disciplines. This series summarizes the advancements of optical physics in the past twenty years in the following fields: High Field Laser Physics, Precision Laser Spectroscopy, Nonlinear Optics, Nanophotonics, Quantum Optics, Ultrafast Optics, Condensed Matter Optics, and Molecular Biophotonics.

The papers in this volume cover the major areas of research activity in the field of ultrafast optics at the present time, and they have been selected to provide an overview of the current state of the art. The purview of the field is the methods for the generation, amplification, and characterization of electromagnetic pulses with durations from the pieo-to the attosecond range, as well as the technical issues surrounding the application of these pulses in physics, chemistry, and biology. The contributions were solicited from the participants in the Ultrafast Optics IV Conference, held in Vienna, Austria, in June 2003. The purpose of the conference is similar to that of this book: to provide a forum for the latest advances in ultrafast optical technology. Ultrafast light sources provide a means to observe and manipulate events on the scale of atomic and molecular dynamics. This is possible either through appropriate shaping of the time-dependent electrie field, or through the ap plication of fields whose strength is comparable to the binding forces of the electrons in atoms and molecules. Recent advances discussed here include the generation of pulses shorter than two optical cycles, and the ability to measure and to shape them in all degrees of freedom with unprecedented 2 21 2 precision, and to amplify them to the Zettawatt/cm (10 W /cm ) range.

A comprehensive treatment of ultrafast optics This book fills the need for a thorough and detailed account of ultrafast optics. Written by one of the most preeminent researchers in the field, it sheds new light on technology that has already had a revolutionary impact on precision frequency metrology, high-speed electrical testing, biomedical imaging, and in revealing the initial steps in chemical reactions. Ultrafast Optics begins with a summary of ultrashort laser pulses and their practical applications in a range of real-world settings. Next, it reviews important background material, including an introduction to Fourier series and Fourier transforms, and goes on to cover: Principles of mode-locking Ultrafast pulse measurement methods Dispersion and dispersion compensation Ultrafast nonlinear optics: second order Ultrafast nonlinear optics: third order Mode-locking: selected advanced topics Manipulation of ultrashort pulses Ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy Terahertz time-domain electromagnetics Professor Weiner's expertise and cutting-edge research result in a book that is destined to become a seminal text for engineers, researchers, and graduate students alike.

The field of ultrafast nonlinear optics is broad and multidisciplinary, and encompasses areas concerned with both the generation and measurement of ultrashort pulses of light, as well as those concerned with the applications of such pulses. Ultrashort pulses are extreme events – both in terms of their durations, and also the high peak powers which their short durations can facilitate. These extreme properties make them powerful experiment tools. On one hand, their ultrashort durations facilitate the probing and manipulation of matter on incredibly short timescales. On the other, their ultrashort durations can facilitate high peak powers which can drive highly nonlinear light-matter interaction processes. Ultrafast Nonlinear Optics covers a complete range of topics, both applied and fundamental in nature, within the area of ultrafast nonlinear optics. Chapters 1 to 4 are concerned with the generation and measurement of ultrashort pulses. Chapters 5 to 7 are concerned with fundamental applications of ultrashort pulses in metrology and quantum control. Chapters 8 and 9 are concerned with ultrafast nonlinear optics in optical fibres. Chapters 10 to 13 are concerned with the applications of ultrashort pulses in areas such as particle acceleration, microscopy, and micromachining. The chapters are aimed at graduate-student level and are intended to provide the student with an accessible, self-contained and comprehensive gateway into each subject.

This book brings together in a single volume the most up-to-date results in the field presented at Ultrafast Optics and Applications of High Field and Short Wavelength Sources 2005. The volume contains keynote and invited contributions together with carefully selected regular contributions. The book aims at the highest level of presentation to make it useful as a reference for those working in the field.

This volume covers a broad range of topics focusing on atoms, molecules, and clusters interacting in intense laser field, laser induced filamentation, and laser plasma interaction and application. The PUILS series delivers up-to-date reviews of progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science, a newly emerging interdisciplinary research field spanning atomic and molecular physics, molecular science, and optical science, which has been stimulated by the recent developments in ultrafast laser technologies. Each volume compiles peer-reviewed articles authored by researchers at the forefront of each their own subfields of UILS. Every chapter opens with an overview of the topics to be discussed, so that researchers unfamiliar to the subfield, as well as graduate students, can grasp the importance and attractions of the research topic at hand; these are followed by reports of cutting-edge discoveries.

This book covers a diverse cross section of this interdisciplinary research field, with contributions grouped into four categories: laser-induced filamentation; atoms and molecules in a laser field; interaction of solid materials with a coherent light field; and ion acceleration and ionization of atoms in super intense laser fields. This book series presents up-to-date reviews of advances in this interdisciplinary research field, spanning atomic and molecular physics, as well as molecular and optical science, which have been stimulated by the recent developments in ultrafast laser technologies. Each book compiles peer-reviewed articles by researchers at the forefront of their particular subfields. All the chapters include an overview to allow graduate students and researchers unfamiliar with the subfield to grasp the importance and attractions of the topic covered, followed by reports of cutting-edge discoveries.

Ten years ago, Stanley L. Shapiro edited the book entitled Ultrashort Light Pulses (Topics Appl. Phys., Vol. 18), which was written by eight experts in the field. Six years later, Charles V. Shank added a bibliography (1980-1983) in the second edition with approximately one thousand new references. During the past decade the field has grown so rapidly that a completely new book had to be written. In particular, the reduction of the time scale of light pulses into the femtosecond range has opened up new experimental possibilities never even foreseen in the preceding literature. The vast literature with countless ideas and applications makes it impossible for a single person to write a comprehensive review. Nine scientists, actively working in the field since its beginning, have decided to join forces to prepare a new book describing the present state of the art. Emphasis is placed on the generation and numerous applications of ultrashort laser pulses. This book covers a wide area of science: physics, engineering, chemistry, and biology. The various chapters and sections are prepared in each case such that the reader is given a brief introduction to the specific subject. Ample references for a more detailed study are given at the end of each chapter.