This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the fields of attosecond science and XUV or X-ray free electron laser science, based on the insight that the further development of both disciplines will greatly benefit from mutual interaction.

Written in an easy and accessible style, the book is aimed at graduate and postgraduate students to support the scientific training in this emerging field. Special emphasis is placed on the practical approach of building experiments that exploit the extreme properties of modern light-sources and on the modeling of relevant physical properties. By providing a concise reference text, the book will allow young researchers to develop a wide range of scientific skills and accelerate the development of attosecond and XUV or X-ray based spectroscopic techniques and their implementation in scientific experiments.

From the contents:

Part I Laser Techniques

• Ultrafast laser oscillators and amplifi ers

• Ultrashort- pulse characterization

• Carrier- envelope phase stabilization

• Towards tabletop x-ray lasers

Part II Theoretical methods

• Ionization in strong low- frequency fi elds

• Multielectron high harmonic generation: simple man on a complex plane

• Time- dependent Schrödinger equation

• Angular distribution in molecular photoionization

Part III High harmonic generation and attosecond pulses

• High- order harmonic generation and attosecond light pulses

• Strong- field interactions at long wavelengths

• Attosecond dynamics in atoms

• Attosecond processes in molecules

• Attosecond electron dynamics in nanosystems

Part IV XUV and x-ray free electron laser experiments

• Strong- field interactions at EUV and X-ray wavelengths

• Ultra intense x- ray interactions at the Linac coherent light source

• Coherent diffractive imaging