In Dye Lasers: 25 years, the pioneers and leading experts in the field of dye lasers present the current status and bright future perspectives of dye lasers and their applications in physics and chemistry. Particular topics covered include: new sources of ultrashort pulses, novel aspects of resonator design and imaging for femtosecond lasers, amplification schemes to terawatt intensity regimes, optics and high-resolution spectroscopy of atoms and molecules, and electro-optic and plasma physics applications of ultrashort and ultra-intense laser pulses. Since its invention in 1966, the dye laser has revolutionized many fields of science and technology. Questions of fundamental interest in physics and chemistry can now be answered: it is possible to test fundamental quantum physics in single-atom experiments and regioselective photochemistry in complexes can be monitored directlyusing dye-laser diagnostic methods. In this book the latest results (and most recent references) are presented for new sources of ultrashort pulses from the visible to the VUV, together with experimental details of ultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy of atoms and molecules, laser diagnostics of the dynamics of elementary chemical reactions, and ultrahigh intensity sources for laser target interaction.

Inhalt

Femtosecond broadband absorption spectroscopy of photodissociating molecules.- Dye lasers and laser dyes in physical chemistry.- Single-atom experiments and the test of fundamental quantum physics.- Regioselective photochemistry in weakly bonded complexes.- Novel resonator design for femtosecond lasers.- Distortion of femtosecond pulse fronts in lenses.- Infrared dye lasers for the wavelength range 1-2 ?m.- Propagation of femtosecond light pulses through dye amplifiers.- Terawatt-class hybrid dye/excimer lasers.- Blue-Green dye laser seeded operation of a terawatt excimer amplifier.- Atomic optics with tunable dye lasers.- Laser spectroscopy of small molecules.- In Situ gas-phase diagnostics by coherent anti-stokes raman scattering.- High-resolution spectroscopy at short wavelengths using pulsed dye lasers.- Doppler-free spectroscopy of large polyatomic molecules and van der waals complexes.- Electro-optic and photoconductive sampling of ultrafast photodiodes with femtosecond laser pulses.- Ultrafast spectroscopy of plasmas generated by very intense Femtosecond dye laser pulses.- Dye laser spectroscopy of isolated atoms and ions in liquid helium.