We are pleased to present the ?fth volume of Progress in Ultrafast Intense LaserScience.Asthefrontiersofultrafastintenselasersciencerapidlyexpand ever outward, there continues to be a growing demand for an introduction to this interdisciplinary research ?eld that is at once widely accessible and ca- ble of delivering cutting-edge developments. Our series aims to respond to this call by providing a compilation of concise review-style articles written by researchers at the forefront of this research ?eld, so that researchers with d- ferent backgrounds as well as graduate students can easily grasp the essential aspects. As in the previous volumes of PUILS, each chapter of this book begins with an introductory part, in which a clear and concise overview of the topic and its signi?cance is given, and moves onto a description of the authors' most recent research results. All the chapters are peer-reviewed. The articles ofthis?fth volumecovera diverserangeofthe interdisciplinaryresearch?eld, and the topics may be grouped into three categories: coherent responses of gaseousand condensed matter to ultrashortintense laser pulses (Chaps. 1-4), propagationof intense laser pulses (Chaps. 5, 6), and laser-plasma interaction and its applications (Chaps. 7-10). From the third volume, the PUILS series has been edited in liaison with the activities of Center for Ultrafast Intense Laser Science in The University of Tokyo, and JILS (Japan Intense Light Field Science Society), the latter of which has also been responsible for sponsoring the series and making the regularpublicationofitsvolumespossible.Fromthe presentvolume,the C- sortiumonEducationandResearchonAdvancedLaserScience,theUniversity of Tokyo, joins this publication activity as one of the sponsoring programs.
