Abstract :
An important characteristic of this book is that it is strongly oriented towards applied research and development; which, in the case of physical processes in lasermaterials interactions, means that it concentrates on aspects of laser applications in metallurgy and semiconductor annealing. These subjects alone span a wide, crossdisciplinary field, yet they are excellently covered in this large (521 pp.) volume with a thoroughness and diversity which could only be achieved through the individual efforts of a large number of authors from leading university, government and industrial laboratories around the world.