Cover -- Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Preface to the First Edition -- Chapter 1. Fundamentals -- 1.1. CHARACTERISTICS OF FEMTOSECOND LIGHT PULSES -- 1.2. PULSE PROPAGATION -- 1.3. INTERACTION OF LIGHT PULSES WITH LINEAR OPTICAL ELEMENTS -- 1.4. GENERATION OF PHASE MODULATION -- 1.5. BEAM PROPAGATION -- 1.6. NUMERICAL MODELING OF PULSE PROPAGATION -- 1.7. SPACE-TIME EFFECTS -- 1.8. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 2. Femtosecond Optics -- 2.1. INTRODUCTION -- 2.2. WHITE LIGHT AND SHORT PULSE INTERFEROMETRY -- 2.3. DISPERSION OF INTERFEROMETRIC STRUCTURES -- 2.4. FOCUSING ELEMENTS -- 2.5. ELEMENTS WITH ANGULAR DISPERSION -- 2.6. WAVE-OPTICAL DESCRIPTION OF ANGULAR DISPERSIVE ELEMENTS -- 2.7. OPTICAL MATRICES FOR DISPERSIVE SYSTEMS -- 2.8. NUMERICAL APPROACHES -- 2.9. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 3. Light-Matter Interaction -- 3.1. DENSITY MATRIX EQUATIONS -- 3.2. PULSE SHAPING WITH RESONANT PARTICLES -- 3.3. NONLINEAR, NONRESONANT OPTICAL PROCESSES -- 3.4. SECOND HARMONIC GENERATION (SHG) -- 3.5. OPTICAL PARAMETRIC INTERACTION -- 3.6. THIRD-ORDER SUSCEPTIBILITY -- 3.7. CONTINUUM GENERATION -- 3.8. SELF-FOCUSING -- 3.9. BEAM TRAPPING AND FILAMENTS -- 3.10. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 4. Coherent Phenomena -- 4.1. FROM COHERENT TO INCOHERENT INTERACTIONS -- 4.2. COHERENT INTERACTIONS WITH TWO- LEVEL SYSTEMS -- 4.3. MULTIPHOTON COHERENT INTERACTION -- 4.4. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 5. Ultrashort Sources I: Fundamentals -- 5.1. INTRODUCTION -- 5.2. CIRCULATING PULSE MODEL -- 5.3. EVOLUTION OF THE PULSE ENERGY -- 5.4. PULSE SHAPING IN INTRACAVITY ELEMENTS -- 5.5. CAVITIES -- 5.6. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 6. Ultrashort Sources II: Examples -- 6.1. SYNCHRONOUS MODE-LOCKING -- 6.2. HYBRID MODE-LOCKING -- 6.3. ADDITIVE PULSE MODE-LOCKING -- 6.4. MODE-LOCKING BASED ON NONRESONANT NONLINEARITY -- 6.5. NEGATIVE FEEDBACK -- 6.6. SEMICONDUCTOR-BASED SATURABLE ABSORBERS -- 6.7. SOLID-STATE LASERS -- 6.8. SEMICONDUCTOR AND DYE LASERS -- 6.9. FIBER LASERS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 7. Femtosecond Pulse Amplification -- 7.1. INTRODUCTION -- 7.2. FUNDAMENTALS -- 7.3. NONLINEAR REFRACTIVE INDEX EFFECTS -- 7.4. CHIRPED PULSE AMPLIFICATION (CPA) -- 7.5. AMPLIFIER DESIGN -- 7.6. OPTICAL PARAMETRIC CHIRPED PULSE AMPLIFICATION (OPCPA) -- 7.7. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 8. Pulse Shaping -- 8.1. PULSE COMPRESSION -- 8.2. SHAPING THROUGH SPECTRAL FILTERING -- 8.3. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 9. Diagnostic Techniques -- 9.1. INTENSITY CORRELATIONS -- 9.2. INTERFEROMETRIC CORRELATIONS -- 9.3. MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES -- 9.4. PULSE AMPLITUDE AND PHASE RECONSTRUCTION -- 9.5. PROBLEMS -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- Chapter 10. Measurement Techniques of Femtosecond S.