Primary events in natural systems or devices occur on extremely short time scales, and yet determine in many cases the final performance or output. For this reason research in ultrafast science is of primary importance and impact in both fundamental research as well as its applications. This book reviews the advances in the field, addressing timely and open questions such as the role of quantum coherence in biology, the role of excess energy in electron injection at photovoltaic interfaces...

We’re on the brink of a lighting revolution with light-emitting diodes—the tiny LEDs you’ve seen in electronic devices for years. With this practical guide, you’ll go behind the scenes to see how and why manufacturers are now designing LED devices to light everything from homes and offices to streets and warehouses.Author Sal Cangeloso shows you the working parts of a “simple” LED bulb and explains the challenges electronics companies face as they push LED lighting into the mainstr...

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM, GCVO, PC, PRS, PRSE, (26 June 1824 17 December 1907) was a mathematical physicist and engineer. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second Laws of Thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form. He worked closely with Mathematics professor, Hugh Blackburn, at the university in his work. He also had a career as an electr...

This book presents the basics and applications of superconducting devices in quantum optics. Over the past decade, superconducting devices have risen to prominence in the arena of quantum optics and quantum information processing. Superconducting detectors provide unparalleled performance for the detection of infrared photons in quantum cryptography, enable fundamental advances in quantum optics, and provide a direct route to on-chip optical quantum information processing. Superconducting ...

Guiding graduate students and researchers through the complex world of laser physics and nonlinear optics, this book provides an in-depth exploration of the dynamics of lasers and other relevant optical systems, under the umbrella of a unitary spatio-temporal vision. Adopting a balanced approach, the book covers traditional as well as special topics in laser physics, quantum electronics and nonlinear optics, treating them from the viewpoint of nonlinear dynamical systems. These include las...

This book attempts to give a discussion of the physics and current and potential applications of the self-focusing of an intense femtosecond laser pulse in a tra- parent medium. Although self-focusing is an old subject of nonlinear optics, the consequence of self-focusing of intense femtosecond laser pulses is totally new and unexpected. Thus, new phenomena are observed, such as long range lam- tation, intensity clamping, white light laser pulse, self-spatial ltering, self-group phase lock...

This book gathers together a range of similar problems that can be encountered in different fields of modern quantum physics and that have common features with regard to multilevel quantum systems. The main motivation was to examine from a uniform standpoint various models and approaches that have been developed in atomic, molecular, condensed matter, chemical, laser and nuclear physics in various contexts. The book should help senior-level undergraduate, graduate students and researchers ...

In this volume the fundamental theory of open quantum systems is revised in the light of modern developments in the field. A unified approach to the quantum evolution of open systems is presented by merging concepts and methods traditionally employed by different communities, such as quantum optics, condensed matter, chemical physics and mathematical physics.The mathematical structure and the general properties of the dynamical maps underlying open system dynamics are explained in d...

The development of coherent radiation sources for sub-angstrom wavelengths - i.e. in the hard X-ray and gamma-ray range - is a challenging goal of modern physics. The availability of such sources will have many applications in basic science, technology and medicine and in particular, they may have a revolutionary impact on nuclear and solid state physics, as well as on the life sciences. The present state-of-the-art lasers are capable of emitting electromagnetic radiation from the infrared...

Since the early days of nonlinear optics in the 1960s, the field has expanded dramatically, and is now a vast and vibrant field with countless technological applications. Providing a gentle introduction to the principles of the subject, this textbook is ideal for graduate students starting their research in this exciting area. After basic ideas have been outlined, the book offers a thorough analysis of second harmonic generation and related second-order processes, before moving on to third...

The optical trapping of colloidal matter is an unequalled field of technology for enabling precise handling of particles on microscopic scales, solely by the force of light. Although the basic concept of optical tweezers, which are based on a single laser beam, has matured and found a vast number of exciting applications, in particular in the life sciences, there are strong demands for more sophisticated approaches. This thesis gives an introductory overview of existing optical micromanipu...

This monograph provides an in-depth treatment of the class of linear-dynamical quantum systems. The monograph presents a detailed account of the mathematical modeling of these systems using linear algebra and quantum stochastic calculus as the main tools for a treatment that emphasizes a system-theoretic point of view and the control-theoretic formulations of quantum versions of familiar problems from the classical (non-quantum) setting, including estimation and filtering, realization theo...