%0 Book Section %B Frontiers of Optical Spectroscopy: Investigating Extreme Physical Conditions with Advanced Optical Techniques %D 2005 %T Light-matter interactions on the femtosecond time scale %A C. A. D. Roeser %A Mazur, E. %E B. Di Bartolo %E O. Forte %X The subject of electromagnetism in the presence of matter is both extensively studied and rich in diverse phenomena. It spans such topics as the quantization of the electromagnetic field to the semiclassical treatment of lightmatter interactions to the derivation of the Fresnel reflectivity formulas. Interest in femtosecond optics is rooted in nonlinear optical phenomena and in the complex electron and lattice dynamics that occur in a material following intense ultrashort-pulse irradiation. The experiments we discuss are concerned mainly with the latter and lie at the crossroad of femtosecond optics and materials science, so-called ultrafast materials science. %B Frontiers of Optical Spectroscopy: Investigating Extreme Physical Conditions with Advanced Optical Techniques %S NATO Science Series %I Kluwer Academic Publishers %P 29–54 %G eng %U /files/mazur/files/pub_539.pdf