This smooth introduction for advanced undergraduates starts with the fundamentals of lasers and pulsed optics. Thus prepared, the student is introduced to short and ultrashort laser pulses, and learns how to generate, manipulate, and measure them. Spectrscopic implications are also discussed. The second edition has been completely revised and includes two new chapters on some of the most promising and fast-developing applications in ultrafast phenomena: coherent control and attosecond pulses.

Inhalt
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.