This award will support a seminar, "Excited State Dynamics in the Condensed Phases", organized jointly by Prof. William M. Yen of the University of Georgia, and Prof. T. Kushida of Osaka University, Japan. Participants will meet in Honolulu, Hawaii in November 1989 to discuss the current status and future directions of studies on the dynamical properties of optically excited states in the condensed phases of matter. Recent introduction of a number of novel spectro- scopic techniques has allowed new approaches to the study of the optical properties of condensed matter and particularly of higher- energy electron states in solids. In addition, new types of optically active materials and systems have simultaneously increased activity in this area. This seminar will allow leaders in the field to correlate their own results and impressions of this recent work. Workers from both countries will discuss relaxation processes of the excited state; characteristics of excitons in both ordered and various kinds of disordered systems; and new experimental techniques. The subjects chosen cross disciplinary boundaries, giving the seminar a multidisciplinary flavor. The work discussed in this seminar has implications for the design and use of such instruments as lasers, and in such important technological fields as optical-fiber communi- cations.
