Laser Graduate School on Modern Problems of Coherent and Nonlinear Optics

The International Laser Center of Moscow University is the organizer of annual sessions of the Laser Graduate School. The duration of each session is one to two weeks, and each session consists of short courses (2 to 8 hours each) delivered by top experts from the leading laboratories and universities all around the world. Each course is devoted to one of the urgent topics of modern laser physics and nonlinear optics and provides an introduction to the subject, a brief history of research in this area, the main achievements and current state of the art in the field, as well as the outlook and some key references. Thus, a short course provides a brief, but comprehensive overview in a given field from one of the leading experts in the field.

The short courses program activity provides an excellent opportunity for the students (graduate students, young scientists, etc.) to "get in touch" with the Science not just reading the papers in scientific journals, but attending the instructor's courses, talking to them, asking questions. For students of Moscow University, these short courses is a part of their regular lecture courses. They may be tested by the lecturers of short courses and receive special diplomas upon the completion of the course.

The history of the Laser Graduate School at the ILC starts in 1990, when the first session was initiated by the late Prof. Sergei Akhmanov. Ten sessions of this school have been held since then. Every year we try to invite an international team of top scientists in different fields. The list of instructors who delivered their lectures for the ILC Laser Graduate School includes such prominent scientists as N. Bloembergen (USA), H. Walther (FRG), C. Flytzanis, A. Boccara, D. Furnier (France), A. Newell (USA), A. Laaksonen (Sweden), C. Rulliere (France), H. Coufal (USA), G. Diebold (USA), G. Kino (USA), R. Thomas (USA), L. Favro (USA), A. Mandelis (Canada), J. Murphy (USA), A. Tam (USA), P. Hess (Germany), H. van Driel (Canada), T.F. Heinz (USA), T. Raising (Denmark), T. Furtak (USA), R.L. Byer (USA), E. Ippen (USA), E. Garmire (USA), C.L. Tang (USA), G.I. Stegeman (USA), D.L. Farkas (USA), D. Meschede (Germany), A. Nitzan (Israel), R.B. Miles (USA), P. Corkum (Canada), and many others.

In 1999, the Laser Graduate School was held on September 21 - 26 and was dedicated to the memory of Sergey Aleksandrovich Akhmanov, a prominent professor of Moscow State University, the organizer of the Laser Graduate School. The program of this school included 4- and 2-hour lecture courses, delivered by the leading scientists from various countries, colleagues and former students of S.A. Akhmanov.

On June 27 - 30, 2001, the ILC of Moscow State University in cooperation with the Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, organized the session of the Laser Graduate School called "Modern Problems of Nonlinear and Coherent Optics" as a part of the XVII International Conference on Coherent and Nonlinear Optics (ICONO'2001). The attendance of these short courses was free of charge due to the sponsorship of SPIE. Several specially organized groups of students from different Russian institutes attended these short courses.

The program of these short courses consisted of five four-hour and four two-hour lectures, delivered by the leading scientists in nonlinear and coherent optics from Russia, Belarus, USA, Germany, Sweden, and Italy. The program of this Laser Graduate school included the following lectures:

• Eberhard Riedle (Germany). Generation, characterization and spectroscopic application of 20 fs pulses tunable from the UV to the NIR.
• Sune Svanberg (Sweden). Laser Spectroscopical Applications to Environmental and Medical Research.
• Paras N. Prasad (USA). Biophotonics.
• Luigi Moi (Italy). Kinetic Effects of Light on Gases and Atoms.
• Dieter Meschede (Germany). Experiments with Single Atoms.
• Victor N. Zadkov (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia). Quantum Computing and Quantum Computers: Dreams and Reality.
• Gennadii P. Yablonskii (Belarus). Quantum Well Heterostructures Based on Wide Band-Gap Semiconductors: Lasers and Non-Linear Optical Properties.
• Anatoly N. Rubinov (Belarus). Site Selective Spectroscopy of Fluorescent Probes in Solutions and Biological Membranes.
• Aleksei M. Zheltikov (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia). Introduction to Photonic Crystals.

The organization of such a school within the framework of the XVII International Conference ICONO'2001, dedicated to the 75th anniversary of R.V. Khokhlov, provided a unique opportunity for students, PhD students, and young scientists to learn more about the latest achievements and new ideas in laser physics, as well as coherent and nonlinear optics.