Special Issue: Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces (NOPTI)

Abstract

The 3rd topical conference Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces (NOPTI 2001) was held from October 15 to 19, 2001 at the Faculty of Science at the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. NOPTI 2001 followed the very successful meetings at Kassel (1993) and Berlin (1998) in bringing together active researchers in this field to discuss recent developments and applications of nonlinear optical techniques for surface and interface studies. The conference programme consisted of 15 invited lectures, 25 oral contributions and 35 posters, covering recent advances in timeresolved studies of surface chemistry, electron and spin dynamics, higher-order mixing processes, nano-optics, magnetization-induced nonlinear optical effects and other areas. The field of nonlinear optics in general, and time-resolved nonlinear optical studies in particular, has greatly benefited from the strong development of solid-state pulsed laser sources. This is particularly clear in the strong development of magnetization-induced second harmonic generation and its application to the studies of ultrathin magnetic films. This new area would never have developed so strongly if we were still limited to Q-switched nanosecond laser sources. This is a nice example of the mutually beneficial interaction between science and engineering, a topic that was so beautifully addressed by Nicolas Bloembergen in his well attended evening lecture on the “Synergy of Science and Technology in Nonlinear Optics”. We were indeed very pleased to have both the founding father of the field of nonlinear optics, Nicolas Bloembergen, and the pioneer of the nonlinear optical probing of interfaces, Ron Shen, actively participate at NOPTI 2001, in addition to many other leading experts in the field. NOPTI 2001 was chaired by Th. Rasing, University of Nijmegen, and was organized by the local committee consisting further of A. Kirilyuk, J. Hohlfeld, A. Fasolino andM. van Breemen, all from Nijmegen. The programme committee were M. Aeschlimann, J. Hohlfeld, B. Jerome, B. Koopmans, Th. Rasing and H. Zacharias. NOPTI 2001 gratefully acknowledges financial support from the University of Nijmegen, the NSRIM Institute of the University of Nijmegen, Spectra Physics, Coherent and Springer-Verlag. Finally the editors would like to thank all the authors and reviewers for their contributions and cooperation.