Progress in Ultrafast Intense Laser Science XV

Femtosecond laser filamentation induced phenomena and applications.- Population inversion mechanism in air-lasing.- Bichromatic control of free electron wave packets.- Light-dressed spectroscopy of Na2.- Coherent nonlinear processes in metal-semiconductor hybrid nanostructures.- Coherent control of nonadiabatic dynamics of electron-phonon systems by quantized light field.- Application of CR-39 solid state nuclear track detectors to laser-driven ion acceleration experiments.- Towards laser intensity calibration using high-field ionization.

Kaoru Yamanouchi has been a Professor of Chemistry at The University of Tokyo since April 1997. His research fields include physical chemistry and AMO physics, with a focus on gas phase laser spectroscopy, chemical reaction dynamics, and intense laser science. In 1996, he launched a new research project to investigate how atoms, molecules, and clusters behave in an intense laser field whose magnitude is as large as that of a Coulomb field within atoms and molecules. By developing new experimental techniques such as mass-resolved momentum imaging, pulsed gas electron diffraction, and coincidence momentum imaging, he has continued his successful exploration of the new research field of ultrafast intense laser science. Among his discoveries, ultrafast structural deformation of molecules and ultrafast hydrogen atom migration within hydrocarbon molecules are particularly noteworthy. He has also demonstrated that the ultrafast structural changes of molecules can in principle be probed inreal time with femtosecond temporal resolution using laser-assisted electron diffraction.

Dimitrios Charalambidis has been faculty member of the Physics Department of the University of Crete and affiliated faculty member of the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (IESL-FORTH) since 1992. His research fields include AMO physics, coherent phenomena, multiphoton processes and attosecond science. In the 1990s, he led research investigating coherent interactions in atomic and molecular continua, demonstrating through quantum interference effects that a continuum is not a sink, as traditionally thought. By developing new methods and using advanced instrumentation he has made multiple contributions to quantitative measurements in multiphoton processes. Since 1999, he has been active in attosecond science, particularly the generation and applications of energetic attosecond pulses. Highlights in this area include the first