Ultrashort Laser Pulse Phenomena, 2nd Edition

550 Examples of Ultrafast Processes in Matter

displacement of the atoms and substantially less energy than required for the

actual bond breaking that occurs with melting.

With the availability of ultrafast X-ray sources, X-ray diffraction became a

powerful new spectroscopic tool for time-resolved spectroscopy [41]. Because

X-ray diffraction is sensitive to the crystal symmetry laser-induced phase changes

can be probed directly by this technique [42].

11.5. PRIMARY STEPS IN PHOTO–BIOLOGICAL

REACTIONS

In the progression of increasingly complex systems, we have come to the role

of fs tools in analyzing the most complex biological systems. Two important

biological problems connected to fs spectroscopy are photosynthesis and vision.

In both cases, light