edited by László Nemes (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary) & Stephan Irle (Nagoya University, Japan)

This book is a stop-gap contribution to the science and technology of carbon plasmas and carbon vapors. It strives to cover two strongly related fields: the molecular quantum theory of carbon plasmas and carbon nanostructures; and the molecular and atomic spectroscopy of such plasmas and vapors. These two fields of research are strongly intertwined and thus reinforce one another.

Even though the use of carbon nanostructures is increasing by the day and their practical uses are emerging, there is no modern review on carbon plasmas, especially from molecular theoretical and spectroscopic viewpoints. The importance of the present book is therefore great from both educational and practical aspects. This review might be the first step towards bringing such textbooks into existence for university education. Similarly, for applied and engineering works in carbon nanostructures, the book provides a theoretical salient point for technologists in the field.

• Experimental:
  • Spectroscopy of Carbon Nanotube Production Processes (B A Cruden)
  • Spectroscopic Studies on Laser-Produced Carbon Vapor (K Sasaki)
  • Kinetic and Diagnostic Studies of Carbon Containing Plasmas and Vapors Using Laser Absorption Techniques (J Röpcke, A Rousseau and P B Davies)
  • Spectroscopy of Carbon Containing Diatomic Molecules (J O Hornkohl, L Nemes and C Parigger)
  • Optical Emission Spectroscopy of C₂ and C₃ Molecules in Laser Ablation Carbon Plasma (N A Savastenko and N V Tarasenko)
  • Intra-Cavity Laser Spectroscopy of Carbon Clusters (S Raikov and L Boufendi)
  • Dynamics of Laser-Ablated Carbon Plasma for Thin Film Deposition: Spectroscopic and Imaging Approach (R K Thareja and A K Sharma)
  • Laser Spectroscopy of Transient Carbon Species in the Context of Soot Formation (V Nevrlý, M Střižík, P Bitala and Z Zelinger)
  • Developing New Production and Observation Methods for Various Sized Carbon Nanomaterials from Clusters to Nanotubes (T Sugai)
• Theoretical:
  • Potential Model for Molecular Dynamics of Carbon (A M Ito and H Nakamura)
  • Electronic and Molecular Structures of Small- and Medium-Sized Carbon Clusters (V Parasuk)
  • Vibrational Spectroscopy of Linear Carbon Chains (C-P Chou, W-F Li, H A Witek and M Andrzejak)
  • Dynamics Simulations of Fullerene and SWCNT Formation (S Irle, G Zheng, Z Wang and K Morokuma)
  • Mechanisms of Carbon Gasification Reactions Using Electronic Structure Methods (J F Espinal, T N Truong and F Mondragón)