Coherent sources in the short wavelength region are developing rapidly. They are expected to find many applications in the areas of atomic physics, photochemistry, photobiology, spectroscopy, microprocessing and microelectronics. The contributions to this book describe recent progress in this field, including new results on X-ray lasers and scaling to shorter wavelengths, free electron lasers using storage rings and induction linacs, excimer lasers, laser fusion research using short wavelength lasers, and applications to X-ray holography, X-ray lithography, and photochemistry. The papers discuss problems that have yet to be solved (modeling of the atomic process for X-ray emission is not yet accurate enough; damage of mirrors and optical elements in free electron and excimer lasers; achieving pulse compression in excimer lasers) but also report on the status of existing and planned installations for free electron lasers, laser fusion research, and excimer lasers.

Inhalt
I Introductory Lectures.- Short Wavelength Lasers for Energy Research.- Dual-Media Nuclear-Pumped Lasers.- II X-Ray Lasers.- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Soft X-Ray Laser Program.- Soft X-Ray Laser Research in the U.K..- Gas-Contact Cooling for Quasi-Stationary Oscillation of the XUV Laser in Recombining Plasmas.- Laser-Driven Soft X-Ray Laser Experiments at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory.- Amplification of Extreme-Ultraviolet Radiation in Recombining Plasmas with Thin Foil Targets.- Study of Recombination Lasing of C3+.- New Features of the Excitation Mechanism of Ions in Dense Plasmas.- Review of X-Ray Laser Studies at the GRECO Interaction Laser-Matière (Palaiseau).- Estimations for Optical or MeV Ion Impact K-Shell Ionization X-Ray Laser Schemes.- Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy and Population Inversion in Laser-Produced Plasmas.- Study on XUV Lasers Produced by a CO2 Laser.- Spectroscopic Techniques for X-Ray Laser Research at the Institute of Laser Engineering.- III FEL and Synchroton Radiation.- Development of Short Wavelength Storage Ring Free Electron Laser Sources.- Experiment and Theory of an Electromagnetic Wiggler and Induction Linac FEL.- Current Status of UVSOR Ultraviolet Synchrotron Radiation Facility at IMS.- Theory of FEL Pulse Propagation: The Small Signal Low Gain Long EBunch Regime.- Two-Stage, Short Wavelength Free-Electron Lasers.- Shortest Wavelength Emission of a Free Electron Laser with Storage Ring ACO at Orsay.- Induction Linac Projects at ILE.- Two-Stage Free Electron Laser Driven by an Induction Linac.- IV Excimer Lasers.- Scalability of High Power KrF Lasers for ICF Driver.- A High-Power KrF Laser System: ASHURA.- Picosecond Terawatt Excimer Laser System.- 3-D ASE Calculation for High Output KrF Lasers.- StronglySaturated Gain Measurements and Kinetics Study of KrF Lasers.- V Short-Wavelength Radiation in Laser Fusion.- High Power KrF Laser System Employing SBS Pulse Compression.- Pellet Implosion by Laser-Produced Short-Wavelength Radiation.- Experimental Study on Nonuniformity Smoothing in UV Laser-Produced Plasma.- Frequency Tripling of the Gekko XII Glass Laser System.- Experimental Study and Application of Laser-Produced Plasmas in Two-Plate Targets.- Soft X-Ray Radiation Transport by Ionization Burnthrough in Hot Dense Plasmas.- X-Ray Emission from the Front and Rear Sides of a Gold Foil Irradiated with a Laser.- Experimental Studies of X-Ray Generation and Its Characteristics in Laser-Produced Plasmas.- Interaction of Bound and Free Electrons Both in the Nonequilibrium State.- Improvement of the Average Ion Model.- Computer Simulation of Population Inversion and the X-Ray Lasing of H-like Aluminium by Electron Heat Conduction Cooling in Stagnated Plasmas.- Behavior of Soft X-Ray Emitting Plasmas in Cannonball Targets and Their Emission Properties.- Fast Neutron Detectors for Thermonuclear Burn Time and Duration Measurements in Inertial Confinement Fusion Targets.- Radiation-Induced Absorption in Optics for ICF Experiments.- Two-Dimensional Fluid Simulation for Implosion Experiments with the GEKKO XII Green Laser System.- VI Novel Laser Applications.- Generation of Intense, Coherent, VUV and XUV Radiation Using Rare Gas Excimer Lasers.- The Sr+ Recombination Laser: A Potential High-Power Blue-Violet Laser.- Amplifier Characteristics of an Electron-Beam Excited Atmospheric-Pressure ArF Laser in the Strongly Saturated Region.- A High Power, Efficient X-Ray Preionization XeCl Laser.- VUV Generation by Nonlinear Frequency Up-Conversion for Laser Spectroscopy.- HighPower and High Energy Glass Laser HIREXS.- Improvement of the Bulk Laser Damage Threshold of Potassium Dihydrogen Phosphate Crystals for Generation of Higher Harmonics by a High Power Laser.- Development of a High Reflectance Coating at 266nm.- Laser Pulse Reshaping in Near-Resonant Sodium Vapor.- Research on Atomic Collisional Processes in Laser Isotope Separation.- VII Applications of Short-Wavelength Radiation.- X-Ray Holography: Coherent or Incoherent?.- X-Ray Characteristics of Multilayer Reflectors.- Characteristics of an Optical CCD as an X-Ray Image Sensor.- Synchrotron Radiation from HiSOR.- X-Ray Lithography Using a KrF Laser-Produced Plasma.- Index of Contributors.