In Dye Lasers: 25 years, the pioneers and leading experts inthe field of dye lasers present the current status andbright future perspectives of dye lasers and theirapplications in physics and chemistry. Particular topicscovered include: new sources of ultrashort pulses, novelaspects of resonator design and imaging for femtosecondlasers, amplification schemes to terawatt intensity regimes,optics and high-resolution spectroscopy of atoms andmolecules, and electro-optic and plasma physics applicationsof ultrashort and ultra-intense laser pulses.Since its invention in 1966, the dye laser hasrevolutionized many fields of science and technology.Questions of fundamental interest in physics and chemistrycan now be answered: it is possible to test fundamentalquantum physics in single-atom experiments andregioselective photochemistry in complexes can be monitoreddirectlyusing dye-laser diagnostic methods.In this book the latest results (and most recent references)are presented for new sources of ultrashort pulses from thevisible to the VUV, together with experimental details ofultrahigh-resolution spectroscopy of atoms and molecules,laser diagnostics of the dynamics of elementary chemicalreactions, and ultrahigh intensity sources for laser targetinteraction.
