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D E P A R T M E N T S

B O O K R E V I E W S

Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena

Jean-Claude Diels and Wolfgang Rudolph,542 pages, illustrations, index, 564 refer-ences, and five appendices. ISBN: 0-12-215492-4. Academic Press, Inc., 525 BStreet, Suite 1900, San Diego, California,92101-4495͑ 1996͒ $95 hardbound.

Reviewed by Steven A. Miller, DefenseSystems Group, Texas Instruments, Inc.,M/S PMK3, 2501 West University Drive,McKinney, Texas 75070.

The literature abounds with texts on thesubject of lasers. Any one book could pro-vide a beginning graduate student with thetools necessary to understand lasers andtheir interaction with matter. However, thetreatment of ultrashort lasers in such booksis cursory, if included at all, since the intri-cacies of femtosecond pulse generation gobeyond what is commonly considered fun-damental. It is true that literally thousandsof journal articles on the subject are avail-able but one would be hard pressed to finda compilation of femtosecond laser tech-nology, especially one suitable as an ad-vanced graduate text or for the practicaluser. So where is one to turn? I wouldstrongly recommend Ultrashort Laser 

Pulse Phenomena by Diels and Rudolph.As any text on fundamentals should, the

book begins with a concise overview of concepts and terminology necessary for afruitful journey into the femtosecondworld. I found the notation to be consistentand the introductory material of Chapter 1quite refreshing. Particularly impressivewas a lucid explanation of the analogy be-tween free-space propagation of a Gaussianbeam and pulse propagation through aGVD media. As with any new topic, estab-lishing a connection with previous materialis an excellent teaching tool.

The next three chapters present the topicsof optics, light-matter interaction, and co-herent phenomena from a femtosecond per-spective. The chapter on optics delves intofundamental principles governing the deliv-ery of femtosecond radiation and illustratesthe properties of angularly dispersive ele-ments, which are so vital in ultrafast lasercavity design. In discussing light-matterinteraction, the authors carefully point

out circumstances where approximationslearned in a first course on lasers remainvalid and where they must be abandoned infavor of a more exact approach.

Chapters 5 through 8 are then dedicatedto the functional aspects of femtosecondsources. The reader is introduced to thebuilding blocks of actual devices. There isample material here to supply the experi-mentalist the knowledge to construct aworking laser cavity. The authors follow in

logical order with a thorough presentationof the laser’s temporal and spectral at-tributes, thoughtfully mixing the theoreticalaspects of pulse characterization with an in-depth account of numerous experimentaltechniques.͑ I found this rich mix of for-malism and ‘‘hands-on’’ to be the text’smost redeeming quality.͒ Having describedthe apparatus completely, the remainingone-fifth of the text is dedicated to novelexperiments involving biology, x-ray gen-eration, semiconductors, and ultrafast im-aging, to name a few, made accessible bythe advent of femtosecond laser technol-ogy.

The problems at the end of each chapterare thought provoking without being over-whelming in difficulty. They show a sin-cere effort on the part of the authors to pro-vide useful insight and test the student’sunderstanding in each important topic. Thetext furnishes all the essential theoreticaland experimental machinery for a studentto explore not only the literature, but thelaboratory with confidence. What I wouldhave given for such a comprehensive textduring my tenure as a graduate student inthe laser laboratories of North Texas StateUniversity, where Diels himself also spent

several years as a professor.There are a select few so-called ‘‘Funda-mentals’’ texts, which are guaranteed to oc-cupy the library of those in both academiaand industry who deal with lasers. Dielsand Rudolph have certainly composed abook of this stature on femtosecond lasers.Books of this importance rise above the or-dinary because of their clarity, complete-ness, and practicality. It is no longer neces-sary to serve as an apprentice to one of asmall group of accomplished laser physi-cists to find out everything you ever wantedto know about femtosecond laser physics.

Optical Diagnostics for Thin FilmProcessing

Irving P. Herman, 797 pages, illustrations,index, and references. ISBN 0-12-342070-9. Academic Press, 525 B Street,Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495͑ 1996͒ $95 hardbound.

Reviewed by William G. Breiland, San-dia National Laboratories, MS 0601, P.O.Box 5800, Albuquerque, New Mexico87185-0601.

The deposition, etching, and patterning of thin film materials are critical technologiesessential to many industries, with applica-tions ranging from wear and corrosion re-sistant coatings to remarkably sophisticatedmicroelectronics and optoelectronics de-vices. However, if one were to go into astate-of-the-art manufacturing facility andturn off the elegantly engineered robotics,disable the elaborate safety interlocks, andpeel off the handsomely painted sheetmetal panels, they would more than likelyfind a piece of equipment that differed verylittle from what was first used in a univer-

sity research laboratory to develop theoriginal process. The most obvious defi-ciency in this equipment is an almost com-plete lack of  in situ monitors and sensorsthat measure thin film properties as op-posed to process variables. Because thesemonitors are not used, much thin film pro-cessing is forced to employ a timed-recipeapproach based on tedious calibration runsrather than real-time control.

The thin film industry is poised to ad-dress this deficiency, in part, with a widevariety of optical methods that are de-scribed in Herman’s timely new book. Thistour de force work unquestionably providesthe most diverse and comprehensive reviewof optical diagnostics for thin film process-ing that can be found in the open literaturetoday. The diversity is both a strength and aweakness. On one hand, a person wishingto find information on a particular opticaltechnique will almost assuredly find a dis-cussion of it in Herman’s book. On theother hand, they will probably also wishthat the discussion had more depth anddetail—much the same feeling that one getswhen looking something up in an encyclo-pedia. To make up for the lack of detail,Herman has adopted a review-article styleof writing that provides the reader with ap-

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proximately 1800 well-researched refer-ences and hundreds of figures from the sci-entific and engineering literature. This styledoes not make good bedside reading, but itdoes reward the serious researcher with awell-written and well-organized account of the highlights of a subject, along with aclear path that can lead one to further in-

depth information. Herman also makes avery good attempt to present a broad over-view of this vast field and to make valuablecomparisons and connections between di-verse areas of thin film optical diagnostics.

The book is divided into 19 chapters,each chapter typically dealing with eitherbackground material or a specific opticaltechnique, such as laser induced fluores-cence. This organization clearly favors op-tical spectroscopists more than thin filmprocess engineers. The process engineerwould most likely benefit more from an al-ternative organization that discusses all theoptical techniques that have been used on a

particular thin film tool. However, Hermaneffectively achieves this kind of organiza-tion by cross-referencing optical techniquechapters within his discussion of specificthin film processing methods.

The first chapter of the book presents avery readable introduction and guide to therest of the text. A section is devoted to adiscussion on the need for optical diagnos-tics. Another summarizes qualitative fea-tures of all the optical diagnostics discussedin later chapters. Finally, there is a sum-mary of thin film processing techniques ac-companied by tables that cross-referenceoptical techniques used with specific thinfilm processing methods. The next threechapters present perhaps an overly ambi-tious attempt to describe the properties of light, the structure of matter, and interac-tions of light and matter in about 100pages. The coverage of relevant topics isthorough, but, as would be expected, lack-ing in detail. For example, only two pagescan be devoted to the spectroscopy of lin-ear molecules—enough to mention P, Q,and R branches, but woefully inadequate tohelp someone describe the laser induced

fluorescence spectrum of the 3⌸—3⌺Ϫ

transition in the NH molecule. Nonetheless,all the classic spectroscopy resources arereferenced so one could certainly go toHerzberg’s texts to learn more. The fifthchapter discusses the experimental aspectsof optical diagnostics. It covers a great dealof material in a short span of well-referenced topics. The rest of the book isdevoted to specific optical diagnostic meth-ods, with considerable treatment given tooptical thermometry, which is gaining in-creased importance in thin film processing.There is a final chapter that deals with thesubject of data analysis and process con-trol. Again, the treatment is cursory, but itserves to inform readers unfamiliar withthis aspect of thin film processing about the

existence of statistical design of experi-ments and neural networks.

The greatest value of  Optical Diagnos-

tics for Thin Film Processing is as a com-prehensive reference text. I have alreadyused it several times to quickly find outwhat research has been done with a specificoptical technique or to obtain a list of ref-

erences on some topic. Although the writ-ing is clear, the review-article style andcursory treatment of any one subject doesnot make it a good textbook or generalsource for casual reading. I highly recom-mend it to anyone who wants to seriouslydelve into the field of thin film optical di-agnostics or wants a single source book of well-organized and very high-density infor-mation on this subject.

BOOKS RECEIVED

Trends in Optics, Vol. 3, edited by Anna

Consortini. v–587 pp., illus., color plates,index, references following each chapter.ISBN 0-12-186030-2. Academic Press,Inc., 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego,CA 92101-4495͑ 1996͒ $55 hardbound. Acollection of 31 papers on the latest appli-cations of modern optics. Book format isunformal and is accessible to readers thatare not optics specialists. Paper topics in-clude biospeckles, photon migration, dif-fractive optics, holography, diffraction to-mography, optical interconnects, signalsynthesis, mirror optics, photorefractive fi-bers, Doppler lidar, spectroscopy, and mo-lecular beam epitaxy.

Applied Optics and Optoelectronics, ed-ited by K. T. V. Grattan. v–473 pp., illus.,index, references following each chapter.ISBN 0-7503-0382-4. Institute of PhysicsPublishing, Techno House, Redcliffe Way,Bristol BS1 6NX, United Kingdom͑ 1996͒hardbound. This book contains the pro-ceedings of the Applied Optics DivisionalConference of the Institute of Physics, heldin Reading in September 1996. Contribu-tions are made by the Institute of PhysicsOptical Group, Instrument Science andTechnology Group, and the Fringe Analy-sis Special Interest Group, as well as oth-ers. Papers presented include the areas of 

applied optics, fringe analysis, optical in-strumentation, and photonic sensing.

High-Level Vision: Object Recognitionand Visual Cognition, by Shimon Ullman.vii–412 pp., illus., appendices, definitions,bibliography, and index. ISBN 0-262-21013-4. MIT Press, 55 Hayward St., Cam-bridge, MA 02142͑ 1996͒ $40 hardbound.Deals with the processes of high-level vi-sion that involve the interpretation and useof what is seen in an image. Object recog-nition and classification, and visual cogni-tion are the two problems the author fo-cuses on. Object recognition is covered in

the first portion of the book, followed byrelated issues in high-level vision, such asobject classification, scene segmentation,and visual cognition. The final chapter pro-poses a model for the general flow of infor-mation in the visual cortex.

Lasers and Electro-Optics: Fundamen-tals and Engineering, by Christopher C.Davis. ix–720 pp., illus., appendices, in-dex, references following each chapter.ISBN 0-521-48403-0. Cambridge Univer-sity Press, The Pitt Building, TrumpingtonSt., Cambridge CB2 1RP ͑ 1996͒ paper-back. This textbook provides an introduc-tion to the basic physics and engineeringaspects of lasers, and the design and opera-tional principles of optical systems andelectro-optical devices. The first half of thebook contains fundamentals of laser phys-ics and laser radiation and discusses typesof individual lasers, including crystal,atomic gas, moelcular gas, and semicon-ductor lasers. The second half of the book 

discusses such topics as optical fibers,electro- and acousto-optic devices, funda-mentals of nonlinear optics, parametric pro-cesses, phase conjugation, and optical bi-stability. The final chapters containinformation on optical detection, coherencetheory, and the application of lasers. Thebook is suitable for undergraduate coursesin laser physics, optoelectronics, photonics,and optical engineering.

Laser Fundamentals, by William T. Sil-fvast. vii–521 pp., illus., appendix, index,summary at beginning of each chapter,worked examples, references following

each chapter. ISBN 0-521-55617-1. Cam-bridge University Press, 40 West 20th St.,New York, NY 10011-4211͑ 1996͒ paper-back. Provides an introduction to the physi-cal and engineering principles of laser op-eration and design. Covered are thefundamental wave and quantum propertiesof light; the concepts of population inver-sion, amplification, gain-bandwidth, and la-ser pumping; and the basic properties of la-ser cavities and Gaussian beams. Alsodiscussed are unstable resonators, Q-switching, mode-locking, pulse-shorteningtechniques, ring lasers, spectral narrowing,and waveguide lasers.

Nonlinear Optics of Organic Moleculesand Polymers, Hari Singh Nalwa andSeizo Miyata, Eds. 1–885 pp., illus., index,references following each chapter. ISBN0-8493-8923-2. CRC Press, Inc., 2000 Cor-porate Blvd. NW, Boca Raton, FL 33431͑ 1997͒ hardbound. Provides theoretical ap-proaches, measurement techniques, materi-als, technologies, and applications of non-linear optical materials. Includes basicoptical physics through theoretical model-ing and molecular engineering. Informationin the book covers nonlinear optical mate-rials through 1995.

BOOK REVIEWS

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