Physical principles of laser micro- and nanotechnologies. The interaction of laser radiation with matter

The interaction of powerful laser radiation with condensed media began to be investigated virtually immediately after the first lasers appeared. At the first stages, these studies were limited to problems of the endurance limit at which the action of the light broke down the integrity of these media and were necessitated by the practical requirements of creating systems that did not become unworkable at high radiation-energy density. The limits of the investigation were subsequently broadened to involve both questions of the physics of the behavior of solid-state media under extremal conditions of the action of light and various applied aspects associated with the laser processing of materials and with controlled variation of their structure, properties, etc.
With time, the traditional directions in which the interaction of laser radiation with matter was studied, such as the heating of the material, the mechanisms and laws governing laser vaporization, plasma formation, laser ablation, etc., were supplemented by an entire series of new topics that arose as laser engineering and photophysics as a whole developed. This relates especially to research into how ultrashort laser pulses act on matter. The development of the physics and engineering of supershort laser effects allowed the dynamics of rapid processes in the solid state to be directly investigated experimentally. In the applied sphere, the use of supershort pulses has made it possible to appreciably improve the accuracy of the laser processing of materials and to develop methods for the controlled modification of the structure and properties of materials on the micro scale. Another rapidly developing research specialization is the study of how light interacts with nanosize objects. Significant advances have been achieved here in research into the action of optical radiation on biological objects, making it possible to strongly expand the application of laser methods in medicine.
The results of recent studies in some of the enumerated regions are reflected in the collection presented here. The articles included here relate to the reports presented at the International Symposium on the Physical Fundamentals of Laser-Assisted Micro- and Nanotechnologies—FLAMN-13, held in St. Petersburg on June 24–28, 2013. We should point out that these articles are not simply the texts of the reports but are written to expand upon the ideas that the authors presented at the symposium.
This collection includes only some of the materials presented at the symposium. Because of the journal’s space limitations, the articles presented here do not completely reflect the theme of the symposium. Readers interested in the contents of the original reports, as well as in reports on a topic not covered here, can acquaint themselves with them in the [Proc. SPIE 9065 (2013)].