Plasma Polarization Spectroscopy

Plasma Polarization Spectroscopy (PPS) is now becoming a standard diagnostic technique for working with laboratory plasmas. This new area needs a comprehensive framework, both experimental and theoretical. This book reviews the historical development of PPS, develops a general theoretical formulation to deal with this phenomenon, along with an overview of relevant cross sections, and reports on laboratory experiments so far performed. It also includes various facets that are interesting from this standpoint, e. g. X-ray lasers and effects of microwave irradiation. It also offers a timely discussion of instrumentation that is quite important in a practical PPS experiment.