There have been two major review articles on the iodine laser in the last ll seven years, liThe Photochemical Iodine Laser by K. Hohla and K. Kompa (Handbook of Chemical Lasers, edited by R. Gross and J. Bott, Wi 1 ey, New York,1976) and a SANDIA report (No. 78-1071, 1978) entitled liThe Atomic Iodine Laserll. Since then, a large body of new material has been published, and practical experience has been gained with large iodine laser systems in Garchi ng (ASTERIX II I) and in the USSR. These 1 asers have now become very reliable tools, especially in fusion-oriented plasma experiments, which represent their main field of application. They can deliver powers in excess of many terawatts per beam and are thus also suited for use in other areas such as X-ray lasers, incoherent X-ray sources, compression of matter and its behaviour at very high densities. The physics of the iodine laser is now rather well understood, and its technology has reached a standard adequate for the construction of large scale systems in the multi-hundred kJ range. In view of this new situation, we thought it useful to document the present state of the art ina book. Its contents and the literature cited therein have been chosen to cover those areas which are of main concern in the design and operation of pulsed high-power iodine lasers.

There have been two major review articles on the iodine laser in the last ll seven years, liThe Photochemical Iodine Laser by K. Hohla and K. Kompa (Handbook of Chemical Lasers, edited by R. Gross and J. Bott, Wi 1 ey, New York,1976) and a SANDIA report (No. 78-1071, 1978) entitled liThe Atomic Iodine Laserll. Since then, a large body of new material has been published, and practical experience has been gained with large iodine laser systems in Garchi ng (ASTERIX II I) and in the USSR. These 1 asers have now become very reliable tools, especially in fusion-oriented plasma experiments, which represent their main field of application. They can deliver powers in excess of many terawatts per beam and are thus also suited for use in other areas such as X-ray lasers, incoherent X-ray sources, compression of matter and its behaviour at very high densities. The physics of the iodine laser is now rather well understood, and its technology has reached a standard adequate for the construction of large scale systems in the multi-hundred kJ range. In view of this new situation, we thought it useful to document the present state of the art ina book. Its contents and the literature cited therein have been chosen to cover those areas which are of main concern in the design and operation of pulsed high-power iodine lasers.

This comprehensive handbook gives a fully updated guide to lasers and laser technologies, including the complete range of their technical applications. This forth volume covers laser applications in the medical, metrology and communications fields. Key Features: • Offers a complete update of the original, bestselling work, including many brand-new chapters. • Deepens the introduction to fundamentals, from laser design and fabrication to host matrices for solid-state lasers, energy level diagrams, hosting materials, dopant energy levels, and lasers based on nonlinear effects. • Covers new laser types, including quantum cascade lasers, silicon-based lasers, titanium sapphire lasers, terahertz lasers, bismuth-doped fiber lasers, and diode-pumped alkali lasers. • Discusses the latest applications, e.g., lasers in microscopy, high-speed imaging, attosecond metrology, 3D printing, optical atomic clocks, time-resolved spectroscopy, polarization and profile measurements, pulse measurements, and laser-induced fluorescence detection. • Adds new sections on laser materials processing, laser spectroscopy, lasers in imaging, lasers in environmental sciences, and lasers in communications. This handbook is the ideal companion for scientists, engineers, and students working with lasers, including those in optics, electrical engineering, physics, chemistry, biomedicine, and other relevant areas.

The High-Power Lasers and Applications Conference was held in Munich, June 20 - 22, 1977. The conference took place simultaneously with the "Laser 77, International Congress and Trade Fair" at the Munich Fair Ground. The meeting was a continuation of a series of colloquia on elec tronic transition lasers previously held in the United States. The main topics of the conference were: high-power VUV, UV, visible and IR la sers, including an analysis of laser systems, technology and laser con cepts. Also, some applications to nonlinear optics, chemical kinetics and spectroscopy, particularly with respect to isotope separation, were discussed. The conference was attended by 95 scientists representing Austria, Canada, England, Finland, Germany (FRG), Germany (GDR), France, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, and the U.S.A. The organizers acknowledge financial support from the Deutsche Forschungs gemeinschaft, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S. Air Force European Office of Aerospace Research and Development (EOARD) and the U.S. Army European Research Office, as well as from the companies Coherent Radiation, Spectra Physics and Cryophysics. Furthermore, we thank our colleagues Dr. Steven N. Suchard and Professor Jeffrey I. Steinfeld for coordinating the U.S. contribution to the conference. We are grateful to Frau Maischberger for administrative assistance.

The State of the Art in High-Power Laser Technology Filled with full-color images, High-Power Laser Handbook offers comprehensive details on the latest advances in high-power laser development and applications. Performance parameters for each major class of lasers are described. The book covers high-power gas, chemical, and free-electron lasers and then discusses semiconductor diode lasers, along with the associated technologies of packaging, reliability, and beam shaping and delivery. Current research and development in solid-state lasers is described as well as scaling approaches for high CW powers, high pulse energies, and high peak powers. This authoritative work also addresses the emergence of fiber lasers and concludes by reviewing various methods for beam combining. Coverage Includes: Carbon dioxide lasers Excimer lasers Chemical lasers High-power free-electron lasers Semiconductor laser diodes High-power diode laser arrays Introduction to high-power solid-state lasers Zig-zag slab lasers ThinZag high-power laser development Thin disk lasers Heat capacity lasers Ultrafast solid-state lasers Ultrafast lasers in the thin disk geometry The National Ignition Facility laser Optical fiber lasers Pulsed fiber lasers High-power ultrafast fiber laser systems High-power fiber lasers for industry and defense Beam combining