E-Book Overview
This book contains important contributions from top international scientists on the-state-of-the-art of femtochemistry and femtobiology at the beginning of the new millennium. It consists of reviews and papers on ultrafast dynamics in molecular science.The coverage of topics highlights several important features of molecular science from the viewpoint of structure (space domain) and dynamics (time domain). First of all, the book presents the latest developments, such as experimental techniques for understanding ultrafast processes in gas, condensed and complex systems, including biological molecules, surfaces and nanostructures. At the same time it stresses the different ways to control the rates and pathways of reactive events in chemistry and biology. Particular emphasis is given to biological processes as an area where femtodynamics is becoming very useful for resolving the structural dynamics from techniques such as electron diffraction, and X-ray and IR spectroscopy. Finally, the latest developments in quantum control (in both theory and experiment) and the experimental pulse-shaping techniques are described.
E-Book Content
PREFACE This book reflects the heights of knowledge of ultrafast chemical processes attained in these early years of the XXIst century: the latest research in femtosecond and picosecond molecular processes in Chemistry and Biology, carried out around the world, is described here in more than 110 articles. The results were presented and discussed at the Vlth International Conference on Femtochemistry, in Paris, France, from July 6 to July 10, 2003. The articles pubhshed here were reviewed by referees selected from specialists in the Femtochemistry community, guaranteeing a collective responsability for the quality of the research reported in the next 564 pages. Femtochemistry is an ever-growing field, where new research areas are constantly opening u