The Advanced Study Institute (AS ) considered a number offacets of the very rapidly advancing field of theoretical and experimental aspects of ultrashort processes in condensed matter. Common threads exist between a series of example cases. One major subgroup of topics involves the ultrashort dynamics of excitations of various "particles" produced through the interactions of condensed matter with ultrashort duration laser light. Examples ofthe excitations include electronic and hole carriers, electron-hole plasma, phonons, vibrons and rotons, two phonon states, and excitons. Experimentation...

InMay1988, theFirstInternationalConferenceonDissociativeRecombination: Theory, ExperimentandApplicationswasheldatChateauLakeLouise, Alberta, Canada. Thismeeting gaveaconsiderableimpetustothissubject, whichisofparticularinterestforalargevarietyof fieldsincludinginterstellarclouds, planetaryatmospheres, gaslasers, plasmaprocessing, ion sourcesandthermonuclearplasmas. Sincethen, indeed, severalcollaborationswereinitiated betweenexperimentalistsworkingwithdifferenttechniques, betweentheoreticiansdealingwith molecularstructureononehandanddynamicsontheotherhandandalsobetween...

This book presents an account of the course "Optical Properties of Excited States in Solids" held in Erice, Italy, from June 16 to 3D, 1991. This meeting was organized by the International School of Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture. The purpose of this course was to present physical models, mathematical formalisms and experimental techniques relevant to the optical properties of excited states in solids. Some active physical species, such as ions or radicals, could survive indefinitely if they were completely 'isolated in space. Other...

The present NATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Cargese (Corsica) from June 3rd to June 7th, 1991, was devoted to Nuclear Shapes and Nuclear Structure at Low Excitation Energies. We tried to organize the Workshop to facilitate the exchange of information in a rapidly moving field, where theorists and experimentalists are continuously developing and implementing new and powerful techniques in order, both to improve our knowledge and understanding of already known areas and to open completely new and fascinating frontier domains, as for example in the case of the recent discovery of...

This book contains the lectures delivered at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on the "Intersubband Transistions in Quantum Wells" held in Cargese, France, between the t 9 h and the 14th of September 1991. The urge for this Workshop was justified by the impressive growth of work dealing with this subject during the last two or three years. Indeed, thanks to recent progresses of epitaxial growth techniques, such as Molecular Beam Epitaxy, it is now possible to realize semiconductor layers ( e.g. GaAs) with thicknesses controlled within one atomic layer, sandwiched between insulating layers...

This volume contains the lectures and communications presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop (NATO ARW 900857) which was held May 5-10, 1991 at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. A scientific commitee made up of P.P. Lambropoulos (USC & Crete), P.8. Corkum (NRC, Ottawa), and H. B. vL. van den Heuvell (FOM, Amsterdam) guided the organizers, A.D. Bandrauk (Sherbrooke) and S.C. Wallace (Toronto) in preparing a programme which would cover the latest advances in the field of atom and molecule laser interactions. Since the last meeting held in July 1987 on "Atomic and...

It is almost self-evident that surface and interface science, coupled with the electronic structure of bulk materials, playa fundamental role in the understanding of materials properties. If one is to have any hope of understanding such properties as catalysis, microelectronic devices and contacts, wear, lubrication, resistance to corrosion, ductility, creep, intragranular fracture, toughness and strength of steels, adhesion of protective oxide scales, and the mechanical properties of ceramics, one must address a rather complex problem involving a number of fundamental parameters: the atomic...

Charge transport through the transfer of protons between molecules has long been recognized as a fundamental process, which plays an important role in many chemical reactions. In particular, proton transfer through Hydrogen (H-) bonds has been identified as the main mechanism, via which many bio- logical functions are performed and many properties of such basic substances as proteins and ice can be understood. In this volume, several of these important aspects of the H-bond are rep- resented. As the division in different sections already indicates, present day research in proton teansfer in...

Many conferences, meetings, workshops, summer schools and symposia on nonlinear dynamical systems are being organized these days, dealing with a great variety of topics and themes -classical and quantum, theoretical and experimental. Some focus on integrability, or discuss the mathematical foundations of chaos. Others explore the beauty of fractals, or examine endless possibilities of applications to problems of physics, chemistry, biology and other sciences. A new scientific discipline has thus emerged, with its own distinct philosophical viewpoint and an impressive arsenal of new methods...

This book is based on contributions to the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Recombination of Atomic Ions. This was held at the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle, Northern Ireland, between 6 and 9 October 1991 and attracted 35 participants from 5 countries. The book is inter. ed to serve as an in-depth review of work to this date on the subject of recombination of atomic ions both in collision with free electrons and with atoms. It contains contributions from almost all groups which have made significant contributions in this area during the last decade. In addition, a synopsis of the...