This book reviews recent advances and reports new results in some of the most exciting areas of modern optics: dynamic behavior of lasers, squeezed states of light, and above-threshold ionization. The combination of longer reviews and shorter research reports allows researchers and graduate students to form a clear picture of current trends.

Inhalt
I Squeezed and Nonclassical Light.- Discrete-Mode Theory of Quantum-Optical Processing.- Continuous-Mode Theory of Quantum-Optical Processing.- Generation of Squeezed Light.- Optical Switching Induced by the Variation of the Squeezing Phase.- Intensity Squeezing in Lasers with Two-Photon Saturable Absorbers.- Quantum Corrections to the Berry Phase for the SO(2,1) Dynamically Invariant Parametric Oscillator.- Nonclassical States of Light and Canonical Transformations.- Langevin Equations for Squeezing by Means of Non-linear Optical Devices.- II Processes in Very Strong Fields.- Atomic Physics and Nonlinear Optics in Very Strong Laser Fields.- Multiphoton Absorption Induced by Chaotic Phenomena.- Coherence and Interference in Multiphoton Processes.- III Basic Quantum Phenomena.- Amplification, Lasing and Inversion.- Trapping in Some Model Hamiltonians.- Optical Bistability in a Ridge Waveguide Resonator Including a Multiple Quantum Well.- Squeezing Behaviour of a Degenerate Paramp with Fourth-Order Interaction: Stationary and Transient Statistics.- Completely Integrable Systems in Nonlinear Optics of Elliptic Gaussian Beams.- Nonlinearities in Polar Molecules: Optical Bistability and Phase-Conjugation.- Phase Space Methods in Quantum Optics: Quantization Maps in the (q,p) Representation.- IV Nonlinear Dynamics.- Chaos and Pulsating Instabilities in Stimulated Brillouin Scattering.- Optical Chaos in a Laser Diode Pumped Nd Doped Fibre Laser.- Amplitude and Phase Dynamics in a Four-Level Model of a Coherently Pumped Laser.- Linear Stability Analysis of a Resonant Cascade Laser.- Phase Anholonomy and Quasiperiodicity in Optical Systems with Intensity Pulsations.- Local and Global Bifurcations in Opto-thermal Bistability with Localized Absorption.- Induced Superradiance and Dynamical Chaos in a Thin Film of Two-Level Atoms.- Analysis of a Modulated LIS Model.- Role of the Earth's Magnetic Field and Atomic Coupling in Polarization Instabilities in Quasi-Isotropic Lasers.- Ultrashort Pulse Dynamics in Nonlinear Couplers.- Deterministic Phase Diffusion, Dimensions and Entropies of Chaotic Lasing in the He-Ne Ring Laser Gyro.- V Transverse Effects.- Transverse Pattern Formation in Lasers.- Principles of Transverse Pattern Formation in Lasers.- Phase Singularity Crystals in Transverse Laser Patterns.- Order-Disorder Transition in the Local Dynamics of a TEA CO2 Laser.- VI Influence of Noise.- Noise and Transient Dynamics in Semiconductor Lasers.- Relation Between Passage Time and Maximum Intensity in Semiconductor Laser Gain Switching.- Transition from Deterministic to Stochastic Behaviour in Bistable Systems.- Phase and Amplitude Correlations Induced by the Switch-On Chirp of a Detuned Laser.- Noise and Symmetry Restoring in Transverse Laser Patterns.- Analysis of the Decay of Intensity Correlation Functions for the Gain-Noise Model of Dye Lasers.- Anomalous Fluctuations for a Good Cavity Laser with Swept Losses.- Detection of Weak Optical Signals in a Laser.- Index of Contributors.