Since the invention of the laser in the 1960s, people have strived to reach higher intensities and shorter pulse durations. High intensities and ultrashort pulse durations are intimately related. Recent developments have shown that high intensity lasers also open the way to realize pulses with the shortest durations to date, giving birth to the field of attosecond science (1 asec = 10-18s). This book is about high-intensity lasers and their applications. The goal is to give an up to date introduction to the technology behind these laser systems and to the broad range of intense laser applications. These applications include AMO (atomic molecular and optical) physics, x-ray science, attosecond science, plasma physics and particle acceleration, condensed matter science and laser micromachining, and finally even high-energy physics.

Autorentext

T. Brabec has been working for nearly 20 years in the areas of nonlinear optics, ultrafast spectroscopy, attosecond science, intense laser field physics, and quantum dynamics. He has (co-)authored about 100 publications.

Klappentext

Due to the rapid progress in laser technology a wealth of novel fundamental and applied applications of lasers in atomic and plasma physics have become possible. This book focuses on the interaction of high intensity lasers with matter. It reviews the state of the art of high power laser sources, intensity laser-atom and laser-plasma interactions, laser matter interaction at relativistic intensities, and QED with intense lasers.

Inhalt

High-Intensity Laser Sources.- High-Energy Pulse Compression Techniques.- Ultrafast Laser Amplifier Systems.- Optical Parametric Amplification Techniques.- Carrier-Envelope Phase of Ultrashort Pulses.- Free-Electron Lasers - High-Intensity X-Ray Sources.- Laser-Matter Interaction - Nonrelativistic.- Numerical Methods in Strong Field Physics.- Principles of Single Atom Physics: High-Order Harmonic Generation, Above-Threshold Ionization and Non-Sequential Ionization.- Ionization of Small Molecules by Strong Laser Fields.- Probing Molecular Structure and Dynamics by Laser-Driven Electron Recollisions.- Intense Laser Interaction with Noble Gas Clusters.- Laser-Induced Optical Breakdown in Solids.- Laser-Driven X-ray Sources.- Macroscopic Effects in High-Order Harmonic Generation.- Attosecond Pulses: Generation, Detection, and Applications.- High-Order Harmonics from Plasma Surfaces.- Table-Top X-Ray Lasers in Short Laser Pulse and Discharge Driven Plasmas.- Time-Resolved X-Ray Science: Emergence of X-Ray Beams Using Laser Systems.- Atomic Multi-photon Interaction with Intense Short-Wavelength Fields.- Laser-Matter Interaction - Relativistic.- Relativistic Laser-Plasma Physics.- High-Density Plasma Laser Interaction.- Relativistic Laser-Atom Physics.- Tests of QED with Intense Lasers.- Nuclear Physics with Intense Lasers.- Intense Field Physics with Heavy Ions.- Ion-Generated, Attosecond Pulses: Interaction with Atoms and Comparison to Femtosecond Laser Fields.