Overview

This volume contains the Proceedings of a two-week NATO A.S.I. on "Analytical Laser Spectroscopy", held from September 23 to October 3, 1982 in Erice, Italy. This is the 9th annual course of Inter- national School of Quantum Electronics organized under the auspices of the "E. Majorana" Center for Scientific Culture. The Advanced Study Institute has been devoted to the analytical applications of lasers in spectroscopy. Atomic and molecular spec- troscopy is one of the research fields in which the use of lasers has had a dramatic impact. New spectral information, difficult or impos- sible to gather by classical spectroscopy, extremely high resolution spectroscopy of atoms and molecules made possible by the overcoming of the Doppler effect, selective excitation and detection of single atomic and molecular quantum states are just few typical examples of how laser sources have revolutionized the field, offering challenging problems of both fundamental and applied nature. Among the possible approaches to a course on Analytical Laser Spectroscopy, the one which emphasizes the scientific and technologi- cal aspects of the advanced laser techniques when applied to chemical analysis has been chosen. In fact, it reflects the new policy of the School to stress the advanced scientific and technological achieve- ments in the field of Quantum Electronics. Accordingly, the course has given the broadest information on the ultimate performances of analytical laser spectroscopy techniques and the perspectives of their applications.