High Energy And Short Pulse Lasers

This book gives the readers an introduction to experimental and theoretical knowledge acquired by large-scale laser laboratories that are dealing with extra-high peak power and ultrashort laser pulses for research of terawatt (TW), petawatt (PW), or near-future exawatt (EW) laser interactions, for soft X-ray sources, for acceleration of particles, or for generation of hot dense thermal plasma for the laser fusion. The other part of this book is dealing with the small-scale laser laboratories that are using for its research on commercial sources of laser radiation, nanosecond (ns), picosecond (ps), or femtosecond (fs) laser pulses, either for basic research or for more advanced applications. This book is divided into six main sections dealing with short and ultrashort laser pulses, laser-produced soft X-ray sources, large-scale high-power laser systems, free-electron lasers, fiber-based sources of short optical pulse, and applications of short pulse lasers. In each chapter readers can find fascinating topics related to the high energy and/or short pulse laser technique. Individual chapters should serve the broad spectrum of readers of different expertise, layman, undergraduate and postgraduate students, scientists, and engineers, who may in this book find easily explained fundamentals as well as advanced principles of particular subjects related to these phenomena.

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Ultrashort laser pulses with durations in the femtosecond range up to a few picoseconds provide a unique method for precise materials processing or medical applications. Paired with the recent developments in ultrashort pulse lasers, this technology is finding its way into various application fields. The book gives a comprehensive overview of the principles and applications of ultrashort pulse lasers, especially applied to medicine and production technology. Recent advances in laser technology are discussed in detail. This covers the development of reliable and cheap low power laser sources as well as high average power ultrashort pulse lasers for large scale manufacturing. The fundamentals of laser-matter-interaction as well as processing strategies and the required system technology are discussed for these laser sources with respect to precise materials processing. Finally, different applications within medicine, measurement technology or materials processing are highlighted.

This book covers the physics, technology and applications of short pulse laser sources that generate pulses with durations of only a few optical cycles. The basic design considerations for the different systems such as lasers, parametric amplifiers and external compression techniques which have emerged over the last decade are discussed to give researchers and graduate students a thorough introduction to this field. The existence of these sources has opened many new fields of research that were not possible before. These are UV and EUV generation from table-top systems using high-harmonic generation, frequency metrology enabling optical frequency counting, high-resolution optical coherence tomography, strong-field ultrafast solid-state processes and ultrafast spectroscopy, to mention only a few. Many new applications will follow. The book attempts to give a comprehensive, while not excessive, introduction to this exciting new field that serves both experienced researchers and graduate students entering the field. The first half of the book covers the current physical principles, processes and design guidelines to generate pulses in the optical range comprising only a few cycles of light. Such as the generation of relatively low energy pulses at high repetition rates directly from the laser, parametric generation of medium energy pulses and high-energy pulses at low repetition rates using external compression in hollow fibers. The applications cover the revolution in frequency metrology and high-resolution laser spectroscopy to electric field synthesis in the optical range as well as the emerging field of high-harmonic generation and attosecond science, high-resolution optical imaging and novel ultrafast dynamics in semiconductors. These fields benefit from the strong electric fields accompanying these pulses in solids and gases during events comprising only a few cycles of light.

This book represents the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, covering the theoretical principles, present experimental status and important applications of short-pulse laser-matter interactions.Femtosecond lasers have undergone dramatic technological advances over the last fifteen years, generating a whole host of new research activities under the theme of “ultrafast science”. The focused light from these devices is so intense that ordinary matter is torn apart within a few laser cycles. This book takes a close-up look at the exotic physical phenomena which arise as a result of this new form of “light-matter” interaction, covering a diverse set of topics including multiphoton ionization, rapid heatwaves, fast particle generation and relativistic self-channeling. These processes are central to a number of exciting new applications in other fields, such as microholography, optical particle accelerators and photonuclear physics.Repository for numerical models described in Chapter 6 can be found at www.fz-juelich.de/zam/cams/plasma/SPLIM/./a

The Nobel Prizes is the official yearbook of the Nobel Foundation. This edition provides extensive information about the 2018 laureates: their Nobel Prize lectures and their autobiographies, as well as presentation speeches and background about the Nobel festivities.Published on behalf of the Nobel Foundation.