International Symposium on Ultrafast Intense Laser Science

Scope

The history of science shows that seeing or probing matter through light has deepened our understanding of nature. The role of light was long limited to a weak probe of atomic structure. The development of ultrashort laser pulse technology has made possible the generation of extremely intense laser light fields whose magnitude can even exceed that of the Coulomb field within atoms and molecules. The behavior of matter under such pulses has been a very exciting and challenging field of investigation over the past 15 years.

New possibilities for controlling and fine-designing their spectral amplitude and phase have opened an entirely new domain of light-matter interaction for ultrashort intense laser pulses. From recent pioneering studies, it has been revealed that such pulses can optimally control the dynamical behavior of atoms, molecules and clusters.

It has also come to researchers' attention that the irradiation of intense laser light onto solid and liquid materials induces the generation of short-pulsed soft- and hard-X rays as well as high-energy electrons, ions and neutrons. These quantum emissions are now regarded as extremely promising sources for time-resolved measurements.

The field of ultrafast intense laser science, clustering both the fundamental and applied aspects of ultrashort (femtosecond to attosecond), intense (1014 to 1018 W.cm-2) pulses is now rapidly increasing worldwide not only in physics (nonlinear optics, plasma time-resolved spectroscopy, metrology), chemistry (physical chemistry, molecular science), but also biology.

The ISUILS was designed to promote this field and explore its frontiers by favoring interdisciplinary discussions among scientists from different research areas including physics, chemistry, biology and laser engineering.

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Topics of ISUILS

  1. atoms, molecules, and clusters in intense laser fields
  2. control of molecules and clusters in intense laser fields
  3. attosecond pulse generation, metrology, and applications
  4. wavepacket control for high-order harmonics
  5. generation metrology and interaction of intense few-cycle pulses
  6. non-linear dynamics in chaotic tunneling for understanding ionization in intense laser fields
  7. non-linear propagation and fs-ablation
  8. short-pulsed laser plasma interaction
  9. non-linear optics in nano plasmas
  10. X ray imaging
  11. short-pulsed electron diffraction
  12. nuclear transitions in laser fields
  13. relativistic quantum dynamics
  14. laser pulse interaction with materials having nano structure
  15. femtosecond biology
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Session Style

As in the first two ISUILS, a discussion leader introduces first the main theme of the session, followed by the presentations by two or three invited speakers. After the presentations, ample time is allotted for questions and discussion. This method has proved very successful and efficient in the first two ISUILS in prompting interdisciplinary contacts.

History of ISUILS

The first ISUILS was held in Tokyo in 2002, and the main theme was "Control of Molecules in Intense Laser Fields". In 2003, the second symposium was held in Quebec, where "Propagation of Intense Laser Light" was the featured topic. Since then, the ISUILS symposia have been held annually in the autumn or in the early winter season.
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