DescriptionExpensive, delicate, and difficult to operate, femtosecond lasers have already won two Nobel Prizes and created multi-billion dollar industries. As these lasers break out of laboratories for use in real-world large-scale applications, the number of people using them increases.This book provides a fresh perspective on femtosecond lasers, discussing how they are soon to become a universal light source, spanning any timescale and generating any wavelength of light. Starting from the basics of light itself, this book presents in an everyday manner, with clear illustrations and without formulas, what makes this class of lasers so versatile and the future of many more applications. Many of the subjects covered in this book are described in plain words for the first time.Table of ContentsPrologueChapter One: IntroductionChapter Two: Why FemtoChapter Three: What is a Light PulseChapter Four: A Pulse Goes Through a Transparent MediumChapter Five: Light Matter Interactions (Part One)Chapter Six: Light Matter Interactions (Part Two)Chapter Seven: About Femtosecond Pulse GenerationChapter Eight: How to Measure Femtosecond Pulses (Part One)Chapter Nine: Shaping the Laser PulsesChapter Ten: How to Measure Femtosecond Pulses (Part Two)Chapter Eleven: Applications of Shaped Pulses to Biomedical ImagingChapter Twelve: Applications of Shaped Pulses to Standoff Detection of Explosives and Other MaterialsChapter Thirteen: Applications of Shaped Pulses to Surgery, and Material Cutting or ProcessingChapter Fourteen: Applications of Shaped Pulses to CommunicationsChapter Fifteen: Applications of Shaped Pulses in ScienceChapter Sixteen: A Survey of New Directions Being Explored, and Potential New ApplicationsChapter Seventeen: The Ultrafast Laser Scaling RevolutionAuthor DescriptionMarcos Dantus has pioneered the use of shaped ultrafast pulses to probe molecular properties and control chemical reactions, as well as for practical applications such as biomedical imaging, proteomics, and standoff detection of explosives. His contributions range from the discovery of nonlinear optical properties and processes to the invention of laser optimization instruments; the development of theory to simulate and predict the interaction of molecules with shaped laser beams, to the development of ultrafast electron diffraction, and inventing an instrument capable of automated pulse compression which is enabling research around the world, as well as novel fiber laser designs. Dantus received his BA and MA degrees in Chemistry from Brandeis University. He received his PhD from Caltech in 1991 where he worked with A. H. Zewail, the father of Femtochemistry and the winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.