The Fourth International Workshop on Electroluminescence (EL-88) was held at the Hotel Holiday, Tottori, Japan, October 11-14, 1988. This workshop was sponsored by the 125 Research Committee on Mutual Conversion between Light and Electricity, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, in cooperation with SID (Society for Infonnation Display) Japan Chapter, Tottori Prefecture, the Tot tori Industrial Technology Association, and the Foundation for Advancement of International Science (FAIS). The workshop EL-88 was a continuation of the series of international work shops held successively at Liege (Belgium) in 1980, Bad Stuer (DDR) in 1983, and at Wann Springs (Oregon, USA) in 1986. It brought together scientists and engi neers from universities and industry who shared a common interest in discussing electroluminescence and related topics. The number of participants reached 253; 49 from abroad (10 countries) and 204 from Japan. This is almost four times as many as in the previous workshop in 1986, reflecting the recent rapid development and progress of electroluminescence research.

This book reviews recent advances in experimental and theoretical understanding of phenomena on the picosecond and femtosecond time scales. The technology and applications in this field have shown remarkable progress recently. It is now possible to produce and measure pulses much shorter than 10 fs, which is approaching the inherent limit, in the visible region. Improvements in wavelength range, power levels and other performance parameters are also reported. These high-performance light sources are being used to study ultrafast phenomena in physical, chemical and biological systems and in artificial devices. The recent results reported and reviewed in this book provide a picture of the current status of the field.