The first in its field, this book is both an introduction to x-ray lasers and a how-to guide for specialists. It provides new entrants and others interested in the field with a comprehensive overview and describes useful examples of analysis and experiments as background and guidance for researchers undertaking new laser designs. In one succinct volume, X-Ray Lasers collects the knowledge and experience gained in two decades of x-ray laser development and conveys the exciting challenges and possibilities still to come. The reader is first introduced to the technical challenges unique to the design and operation of lasers in the "vacuum" region of the spectrum, where the atmosphere is highly absorbent and optics are--at best--unconventional. A discussion of the basic principles for and limitations in achieving significant x-ray amplification, as well as descriptions of gain measurement techniques and instrumentation follows. Various approaches for pumping media to x-ray gain conditions are also analyzed, and descriptions of experimental progress are included wherever possible. The book concludes with a description and comparison with alternate sources and applications for an x-ray laser. This work is both an introduction to x-ray lasers and a how-to guide for specialists. It provides new entrants and others interested in the field with a comprehensive overview and describes useful analyses and experiments as guidance for researchers undertaking new laser designs.
This book attempts to answer why there is so much interest in clusters. Clusters occur on all length scales, and as a result occur in a variety of fields. Clusters are interesting scientifically, but they also have important consequences technologically.The division of the book into three parts roughly separates the field into small, intermediate, and large-scale clusters. Small clusters are the regime of atomic and molecular physics and chemistry. The intermediate regime is the transitional regime, with its characteristics including the onset of bulk-like behavior, growth and aggregation, and the beginning of materials properties. Large-scale clusters reflect more condensed-matter and materials science aspects and it is in this regime that fractals make their most dramatic appearance.This well-integrated and pedagogical overview of the wide field of clusters in which both theoretical and experimental work is covered, will be of interest not only to students, advanced undergraduates and graduate students, but also to researchers in the various subfields surveyed.