Special Issue Preface pubs.acs.org/JPCA
Introduction to the Special Section on “Femto10. The Madrid Conference on Femtochemistry”
T
his Special Section is based on the symposium Femto10. The Madrid Conference on Femtochemistry, celebrated at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain) in July 10−15, 2011. Femto10, Frontiers of Ultrafast Phenomena in Chemistry, Physics and Biology, is the 10th Edition of the Femtochemistry Conference Series. Since the pioneering work of Ahmed H. Zewail (Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999) at Caltech (U.S.A.) in the 1980s, the evolution and trends of the fast-growing field of Femtochemistry have been followed at successive snapshots in a series of biennial conferences that started in 1993 in Berlin, first organized by Jö r n Manz. The edition of this Special Section is then very timely to celebrate the special occasion of the 10th Edition of the Conference. We would like to thank the invited speakers of the meeting, many of whom agreed to contribute to this issue, as well as those contributing authors who were not able to attend the meeting. We also extend our gratitude to the chairmen of the sessions for the overview presentations of the topics covered along the Conference. This Special Section succeeds well in giving a flavor of the diverse and dynamic research areas and latest developments in Femtochemistry. The aims of Femtochemistry were originally concerned with detection and coherent control of vibrational motions of atoms in the microscopic environment of gas-phase (bond-breaking and bond-forming) chemical reactions, motions that occur on the time scale of several tens of femtoseconds as a consequence of the coherent interaction with pulsed laser light. The scheme of those experiments based in the stroboscopic principle (two consecutive pump and probe pulses) has become universal and is now extended to Femtobiology, Femtophysics, and even the new field of attosecond electron dynamics, where the inspiration comes from the use of ultrashort lasers to disentangle timeresolved properties of electrons, molecules, liquids, and solids. This expansion is reflected in the variety of topics covered by Femto10: reaction dynamics; coherent control; structural dynamics; solvation phenomena, liquids and interfaces; fast processes in biological systems; strong field processes; attosecond electron dynamics; and surfaces and solids. The state-of-the art and the most recent developments in the diverse areas of Femtochemistry are reflected in the contributions that follow. Reaction dynamics is represented by experimental and theoretical work from the groups of Stavros, Vibok and Cederbaum, Takatsuka, Bañ a res, Longarte, Diestler, Manz, Neumark, Tarnovsky, and Martinez. Contributions in coherent control are given by the groups of Weinacht, Sola and Santamaría, Martín, González, and Bucksbaum. Structural dynamics is represented by Ihee and Hamm; solvation dynamics, liquids and interfaces by Meech and Batista; ultrafast processes in biology by Zhong, Haacke, © 2012 American Chemical Society
and Dantus; and, finally, strong field processes by Biegert, Yamanouchi, Lein, and González-Vázquez. There is a total of 27 papers, and we expect you will enjoy having them together in this Special Section.
Luis Bañares, Chairman of Femto10 Jesús Santamaría, Chairman of Femto10 Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Special Issue: Femto10: The Madrid Conference on Femtochemistry Published: March 22, 2012 2599
dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp3006266 | J. Phys. Chem. A 2012, 116, 2599−2599
