This is the second edition of this advanced textbook written for scientists who require further training in femtosecond science. Four years after pub- cation of the ? rst edition, femtosecond science has overcome new challenges and new application ? elds have become mature. It is necessary to take into account these new developments. Two main topics merged during this period that support important scienti? c activities: attosecond pulses are now gen- ated in the X-UV spectral domain, and coherent control of chemical events is now possible by tailoring the shape of femtosecond pulses. To update this advanced textbook, it was necessary to introduce these ? elds; two new ch- ters are in this second edition: "Coherent Control in Atoms, Molecules, and Solids"(Chap. 11)and"AttosecondPulses"(Chap. 12)withwell-documented references. Some changes, addenda, and new references are introduced in the ? rst edition's ten original chapters to take into account new developments and updatethisadvancedtextbookwhichistheresultofascienti? cadventurethat started in 1991. At that time, the French Ministry of Education decided that, in view of the growing importance of ultrashort laser pulses for the national scienti? c community, a Femtosecond Centre should be created in France and devoted to the further education of scientists who use femtosecond pulses as a research tool and who are not specialists in lasers or even in optics.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
Laser Basics. - Pulsed Optics. - Methods for the Generation of Ultrashort Laser Pulses: Mode-Locking. - Further Methods for the Generation of Ultrashort Optical Pulses. - Pulsed Semiconductor Lasers. - How to Manipulate and Change the Characteristics of Laser Pulses. - How to Measure the Characteristics of Laser Pulses. - Spectroscopic Methods for Analysis of Sample Dynamics. - Coherent Effects in Femtosecond Spectroscopy: A Simple Picture Using the Bloch Equation. - Terahertz Femtosecond Pulses. - Coherent Control in Atoms, Molecules and Solids. - Attosecond Pulses.
