Lasers are relatively recent additions to the analytical scientist's arsenal. Because of this, many analysts-whether their concern is research or some range of applications-are in need of a tutorial introduction not only to the principles of lasers, their optics, and radiation, but also to their already diverse and burgeoning applications. The artic1es presented in this volume, carefully enhanced and edited from lectures prepared for the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry 1979 Summer Symposium, are designed to provide just such a broad introduction to the subject. Thus, in addition to several excellent chapters on laser fundamentals, there are many practically oriented artic1es dealing with laser analytical methodology, inc1uding techniques based on the absorption oflaser radiation, on laser-induced fluorescence, and on some of the uses of lasers in chemical instru mentation. The first of these sections is pivotal and reflects in part our philosophy in organizing this collection. The authors of the initial chapters were invited not only because of their expertise in the field of lasers and analytical chemistry, but also because their didactic approach to writing and their c1arity of presentation were well known to us. It is our hope that individual readers with little knowledge of lasers will gain from these introductory chapters sufficient information to render the later, more detailed artic1es both useful and meaningful.

Lasers are relatively recent additions to the analytical scientist's arsenal. Because of this, many analysts-whether their concern is research or some range of applications-are in need of a tutorial introduction not only to the principles of lasers, their optics, and radiation, but also to their already diverse and burgeoning applications. The artic1es presented in this volume, carefully enhanced and edited from lectures prepared for the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry 1979 Summer Symposium, are designed to provide just such a broad introduction to the subject. Thus, in addition to several excellent chapters on laser fundamentals, there are many practically oriented artic1es dealing with laser analytical methodology, inc1uding techniques based on the absorption oflaser radiation, on laser-induced fluorescence, and on some of the uses of lasers in chemical instru mentation. The first of these sections is pivotal and reflects in part our philosophy in organizing this collection. The authors of the initial chapters were invited not only because of their expertise in the field of lasers and analytical chemistry, but also because their didactic approach to writing and their c1arity of presentation were well known to us. It is our hope that individual readers with little knowledge of lasers will gain from these introductory chapters sufficient information to render the later, more detailed artic1es both useful and meaningful.

Lasers are relatively recent additions to the analytical scientist's arsenal. Because of this, many analysts-whether their concern is research or some range of applications-are in need of a tutorial introduction not only to the principles of lasers, their optics, and radiation, but also to their already diverse and burgeoning applications. The artic1es presented in this volume, carefully enhanced and edited from lectures prepared for the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry 1979 Summer Symposium, are designed to provide just such a broad introduction to the subject. Thus, in addition to several excellent chapters on laser fundamentals, there are many practically oriented artic1es dealing with laser analytical methodology, inc1uding techniques based on the absorption oflaser radiation, on laser-induced fluorescence, and on some of the uses of lasers in chemical instru mentation. The first of these sections is pivotal and reflects in part our philosophy in organizing this collection. The authors of the initial chapters were invited not only because of their expertise in the field of lasers and analytical chemistry, but also because their didactic approach to writing and their c1arity of presentation were well known to us. It is our hope that individual readers with little knowledge of lasers will gain from these introductory chapters sufficient information to render the later, more detailed artic1es both useful and meaningful.

Laser application in chemistry and related fields is an area growing at rapid pace in line with new developments in laser technology. The fields of application range from fundamental chemical research to sophisticated analytical methods in chemical and biotechnological industry and in environmental chemistry. This book demonstrates the breadth of applications of lasers in chemistry, with particular reference to analytical and research applications. David L. Andrews presents the subject matter at a level amenable to the general chemist, the novice and the practising specialists as well. The 3rd edition of this successful book has been completely revised and updated.

It has often been said that the laser is a solution searching for a problem. The rapid development of laser technology over the past dozen years has led to the availability of reliable, industrially rated laser sources with a wide variety of output characteristics. This, in turn, has resulted in new laser applications as the laser becomes a familiar processing and analytical tool. The field of materials science, in particular, has become a fertile one for new laser applications. Laser annealing, alloying, cladding, and heat treating were all but unknown 10 years ago. Today, each is a separate, dynamic field of research activity with many of the early laboratory experiments resulting in the development of new industrial processing techniques using laser technology. Ten years ago, chemical processing was in its infancy awaiting, primarily, the development of reliable tunable laser sources. Now, with tunability over the entire spectrum from the vacuum ultraviolet to the far infrared, photo chemistry is undergoing revolutionary changes with several proven and many promising commercial laser processing operations as the result. The ability of laser sources to project a probing beam of light into remote or hostile environments has led to the development of a wide variety of new analytical techniques in environmental and laboratory analysis. Many of these are reviewed in this book.

This volume contains the Proceedings of a two-week NATO A.S.I. on "Analytical Laser Spectroscopy", held from September 23 to October 3, 1982 in Erice, Italy. This is the 9th annual course of Inter national School of Quantum Electronics organized under the auspices of the "E. Majorana" Center for Scientific Culture. The Advanced Study Institute has been devoted to the analytical applications of lasers in spectroscopy. Atomic and molecular spec troscopy is one of the research fields in which the use of lasers has had a dramatic impact. New spectral information, difficult or impos sible to gather by classical spectroscopy, extremely high resolution spectroscopy of atoms and molecules made possible by the overcoming of the Doppler effect, selective excitation and detection of single atomic and molecular quantum states are just few typical examples of how laser sources have revolutionized the field, offering challenging problems of both fundamental and applied nature. Among the possible approaches to a course on Analytical Laser Spectroscopy, the one which emphasizes the scientific and technologi cal aspects of the advanced laser techniques when applied to chemical analysis has been chosen. In fact, it reflects the new policy of the School to stress the advanced scientific and technological achieve ments in the field of Quantum Electronics. Accordingly, the course has given the broadest information on the ultimate performances of analytical laser spectroscopy techniques and the perspectives of their applications.