Front cover -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Preface to the First Edition -- Why Ultrashort Pulse Phenomena? -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 1 Fundamentals -- 1.1. CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMTOSECOND LIGHT PULSES -- 1.1.1. Complex Representation of the Electric Field -- 1.1.2. Power, Energy, and Related Quantities -- 1.1.3. Pulse Duration and Spectral Width -- 1.1.4. Wigner Distribution, Second-Order Moments, Uncertainty Relations -- 1.2. PULSE PROPAGATION -- 1.2.1. The Reduced Wave Equation -- 1.2.2. Retarded Frame of Reference -- 1.2.3. Dispersion -- 1.2.4. Gaussian Pulse Propagation -- 1.2.5. Complex Dielectric Constant -- 1.3. INTERACTION OF LIGHT PULSES WITH LINEAR OPTICAL ELEMENTS -- 1.4. GENERATION OF PHASE MODULATION -- 1.5. BEAM PROPAGATION -- 1.5.1. General -- 1.5.2. Analogy between Pulse and Beam Propagation -- 1.5.3. Analogy between Spatial and Temporal Imaging -- 1.6. NUMERICAL MODELING OF PULSE PROPAGATION -- 1.7. SPACE-TIME EFFECTS -- 1.8. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 2 Femtosecond Optics -- 2.1. INTRODUCTION -- 2.2. WHITE LIGHT AND SHORT PULSE INTERFEROMETRY -- 2.3. DISPERSION OF INTERFEROMETRIC STRUCTURES -- 2.3.1. Mirror Dispersion -- 2.3.2. Fabry-Perot and Gires-Tournois Interferometer -- 2.3.3. Chirped Mirrors -- 2.4. FOCUSING ELEMENTS -- 2.4.1. Singlet Lenses -- 2.4.2. Space-Time Distribution of the Pulse Intensity at the Focus of a Lens -- 2.4.3. Achromatic Doublets -- 2.4.4. Focusing Mirrors -- 2.5. ELEMENTS WITH ANGULAR DISPERSION -- 2.5.1. Introduction -- 2.5.2. Tilting of Pulse Fronts -- 2.5.3. GVD through Angular Dispersion-General -- 2.5.4. GVD of a Cavity Containing a Single Prism -- 2.5.5. Group Velocity Control with Pairs of Prisms -- 2.5.6. GVD Introduced by Gratings -- 2.5.7. Grating Pairs for Pulse Compressors -- 2.5.8. Combination of Focusing and Angular Dispersive Elements.

2.6. WAVE-OPTICAL DESCRIPTION OF ANGULAR DISPERSIVE ELEMENTS -- 2.7. OPTICAL MATRICES FOR DISPERSIVE SYSTEMS -- 2.8. NUMERICAL APPROACHES -- 2.9. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 3 Light-Matter Interaction -- 3.1. DENSITY MATRIX EQUATIONS -- 3.2. PULSE SHAPING WITH RESONANT PARTICLES -- 3.2.1. General -- 3.2.2. Pulses Much Longer Than the Phase Relaxation Time (τp >> T2) -- 3.2.3. Phase Modulation by Quasi-Resonant Interactions -- 3.2.4 Pulse Durations Comparable with or Longer Than the Phase Relaxation Time (τp ≥ T2) -- 3.3. NONLINEAR, NONRESONANT OPTICAL PROCESSES -- 3.3.1. General -- 3.3.2. Noninstantaneous Response -- 3.3.3. Pulse Propagation -- 3.4. SECOND HARMONIC GENERATION (SHG) -- 3.4.1. Type I Second Harmonic Generation -- 3.4.2. Second Harmonic Type II: Equations for Arbitrary Phase Mismatch and Conversion Efficiencies -- 3.4.3. Pulse Shaping in Second Harmonic Generation (Type II) -- 3.4.4. Group Velocity Control in SHG through Pulse Front Tilt -- 3.5. OPTICAL PARAMETRIC INTERACTION -- 3.5.1. Coupled Field Equations -- 3.5.2. Synchronous Pumping -- 3.5.3. Chirp Amplification -- 3.6. THIRD-ORDER SUSCEPTIBILITY -- 3.6.1. Fundamentals -- 3.6.2. Short Samples with Instantaneous Response -- 3.6.3. Short Samples and Noninstantaneous Response -- 3.6.4. Counter-Propagating Pulses and Third-Order Susceptibility -- 3.7. CONTINUUM GENERATION -- 3.8. SELF-FOCUSING -- 3.8.1. Critical Power -- 3.8.2. The Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation -- 3.9. BEAM TRAPPING AND FILAMENTS -- 3.9.1. Beam Trapping -- 3.9.2. Ultrashort Pulse Self-Focusing -- 3.10. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 4 Coherent Phenomena -- 4.1. FROM COHERENT TO INCOHERENT INTERACTIONS -- 4.2. COHERENT INTERACTIONS WITH TWO-LEVEL SYSTEMS -- 4.2.1. Maxwell-Bloch Equations -- 4.2.2. Rate Equations -- 4.2.3. Evolution Equations -- 4.2.4. Steady-State Pulses -- 4.3. MULTIPHOTON COHERENT INTERACTION.

4.3.1. Introduction -- 4.3.2. Multiphoton Multilevel Transitions -- 4.3.3. Simplifying a N-Level System to a Two-Level Transition -- 4.3.4. Four Photon Resonant Coherent Interaction -- 4.3.5. Miscellaneous Applications -- 4.4. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 5 Ultrashort Sources I: Fundamentals -- 5.1. INTRODUCTION -- 5.1.1. Superposition of Cavity Modes -- 5.1.2. Cavity Modes and Modes of a Mode-Locked Laser -- 5.1.3. The "Perfect" Mode-Locked Laser -- 5.1.4. The "Common" Mode-Locked Laser -- 5.1.5. Basic Elements and Operation of a fs Laser -- 5.2. CIRCULATING PULSE MODEL -- 5.2.1. General Round-Trip Model -- 5.2.2. Continuous Model -- 5.2.3. Elements of a Numerical Treatment -- 5.2.4. Elements of an Analytical Treatment -- 5.3. EVOLUTION OF THE PULSE ENERGY -- 5.3.1. Rate Equations for the Evolution of the Pulse Energy -- 5.3.2. Connection of the Model to Microscopic Parameters -- 5.4. PULSE SHAPING IN INTRACAVITY ELEMENTS -- 5.4.1. Saturation -- 5.4.2. Nonlinear Nonresonant Elements -- 5.4.3. Self-Lensing -- 5.4.4. Summary of Compression Mechanisms -- 5.4.5. Dispersion -- 5.5. CAVITIES -- 5.5.1. Cavity Modes and ABCD Matrix Analysis -- 5.5.2. Astigmatism and Its Compensation -- 5.5.3. Cavity with a Kerr Lens -- 5.6. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 6 Ultrashort Sources II: Examples -- 6.1. SYNCHRONOUS MODE-LOCKING -- 6.2. HYBRID MODE-LOCKING -- 6.3. ADDITIVE PULSE MODE-LOCKING -- 6.3.1. Generalities -- 6.3.2. Analysis of APML -- 6.4. MODE-LOCKING BASED ON NONRESONANT NONLINEARITY -- 6.4.1. Nonlinear Mirror -- 6.4.2. Polarization Rotation -- 6.5. NEGATIVE FEEDBACK -- 6.6. SEMICONDUCTOR-BASED SATURABLE ABSORBERS -- 6.7. SOLID-STATE LASERS -- 6.7.1. Generalities -- 6.7.2. Ti:sapphire Laser -- 6.7.3. Cr:LiSAF, Cr:LiGAF, Cr:LiSGAF, and Alexandrite -- 6.7.4. Cr:Forsterite and Cr:Cunyite Lasers -- 6.7.5. YAG Lasers -- 6.7.6. Nd: YVO4 and Nd: YLF.

6.8. SEMICONDUCTOR AND DYE LASERS -- 6.8.1. Dye Lasers -- 6.8.2. Semiconductor Lasers -- 6.9. FIBER LASERS -- 6.9.1. Introduction -- 6.9.2. Raman Soliton Fiber Lasers -- 6.9.3. Doped Fiber Lasers -- 6.9.4. Mode-Locking through Polarization Rotation -- 6.9.5. Figure-Eight Laser -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 7 Femtosecond Pulse Amplification -- 7.1. INTRODUCTION -- 7.2. FUNDAMENTALS -- 7.2.1. Gain Factor and Saturation -- 7.2.2. Shaping in Amplifiers -- 7.2.3. Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) -- 7.3. NONLINEAR REFRACTIVE INDEX EFFECTS -- 7.3.1. General -- 7.3.2. Self-Focusing -- 7.3.3. Thermal Noise -- 7.3.4. Combined Pulse Amplification and Chirping -- 7.4. CHIRPED PULSE AMPLIFICATION (CPA) -- 7.5. AMPLIFIER DESIGN -- 7.5.1. Gain Media and Pump Pulses -- 7.5.2. Amplifier Configurations -- 7.5.3. Single-Stage, Multipass Amplifiers -- 7.5.4. Regenerative Amplifiers -- 7.5.5. Traveling Wave Amplification -- 7.6. OPTICAL PARAMETRIC CHIRPED PULSE AMPLIFICATION (OPCPA) -- 7.7. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 8 Pulse Shaping -- 8.1. PULSE COMPRESSION -- 8.1.1. General -- 8.1.2. The Fiber Compressor -- 8.1.3. Pulse Compression Using Bulk Materials -- 8.2. SHAPING THROUGH SPECTRAL FILTERING -- 8.3. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 9 Diagnostic Techniques -- 9.1. INTENSITY CORRELATIONS -- 9.1.1. General Properties -- 9.1.2. The Intensity Autocorrelation -- 9.1.3. Intensity Correlations of Higher Order -- 9.2. INTERFEROMETRIC CORRELATIONS -- 9.2.1. General Expression -- 9.2.2. Interferometric Autocorrelation -- 9.3. MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES -- 9.3.1. Nonlinear Optical Processes for Measuring Femtosecond Pulse Correlations -- 9.3.2. Recurrent Signals -- 9.3.3. Single Shot Measurements -- 9.4. PULSE AMPLITUDE AND PHASE RECONSTRUCTION -- 9.4.1. Introduction -- 9.4.2. Methods for Full-Field Characterization of Ultrashort Light Pulses -- 9.4.3. Retrieval from Correlation and Spectrum.

9.4.4. Frequency Resolved Optical Gating (FROG) -- 9.4.5. Spectral Phase Interferometry for Direct Electric Field Reconstruction (SPIDER) -- 9.5. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 10 Measurement Techniques of Femtosecond Spectroscopy -- 10.1. INTRODUCTION -- 10.2. DATA DECONVOLUTIONS -- 10.3. BEAM GEOMETRY AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION -- 10.4. TRANSIENT ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY -- 10.5. TRANSIENT POLARIZATION ROTATION -- 10.6. TRANSIENT GRATING TECHNIQUES -- 10.6.1. General Technique -- 10.6.2. Degenerate Four Wave Mixing (DFWM) -- 10.7. FEMTOSECOND RESOLVED FLUORESCENCE -- 10.8. PHOTON ECHOES -- 10.9. ZERO AREA PULSE PROPAGATION -- 10.10. IMPULSIVE STIMULATED RAMAN SCATTERING -- 10.10.1. General Description -- 10.10.2. Detection -- 10.10.3. Theoretical Framework -- 10.10.4. Single Pulse Shaping Versus Mode- Locked Train -- 10.11. SELF-ACTION EXPERIMENTS -- 10.12. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 11 Examples of Ultrafast Processes in Matter -- 11.1. INTRODUCTION -- 11.2. ULTRAFAST TRANSIENTS IN ATOMS -- 11.2.1. The Classical Limit of the Quantum Mechanical Atom -- 11.2.2. The Radial Wave Packet -- 11.2.3. The Angularly Localized Wave Packet -- 11.3. ULTRAFAST PROCESSES IN MOLECULES -- 11.3.1. Observation of Molecular Vibrations -- 11.3.2. Chemical Reactions -- 11.3.3. Molecules in Solution -- 11.4. ULTRAFAST PROCESSES IN SOLID-STATE MATERIALS -- 11.4.1. Excitation Across the Band Gap -- 11.4.2. Excitons -- 11.4.3. Intraband Relaxation -- 11.4.4. Phonon Dynamics -- 11.4.5. Laser-Induced Surface Disordering -- 11.5. PRIMARY STEPS IN PHOTO-BIOLOGICAL REACTIONS -- 11.5.1. Femtosecond Isomerization of Rhodopsin -- 11.5.2. Photosynthesis -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- 12 Generation of Extreme Wavelengths -- 12.1. GENERATION OF TERAHERTZ (THz) RADIATION -- 12.2. GENERATION OF ULTRAFAST X-RAY PULSES -- 12.2.1. Incoherent Bursts of X-Rays.

12.2.2. High Harmonics (HH) and Attosecond Pulse Generation.