Laser Spectroscopy. Icols 2011: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference

From 29th of May to 3rd of June, 2011, the 20th International Conference on Laser Spectroscopy (ICOLS 2011) was held on the Schlosshotel Munchhausen located in the middle of a unique park landscape next to Hameln in the Weser Uplands near Hannover, Germany. The Weser Uplands (German: Weserbergland) is a hill region in Germany (Lower Saxony, Hessen and North Rhine-Westphalia, between Hannoversch Munden and Porta Westfalica near the river Weser). Following the tradition, the conference served as an international forum for 200 researchers to discuss the latest ideas, developments and applications of laser spectroscopy. The program consisted of 32 invited oral presentations (daily single session format), five hot topic presentations and two evening poster sessions. Topics for discussion reflect the broad and diverse nature of our field and include: Atomic and molecular laser spectroscopy, precision spectroscopy and metrology, laser cooling and trapping, degenerate gases, BECs, cold Fermions, cold collisions and cold molecules atom interferometry, quantum optics, quantum information based on spectroscopic methods, advanced laser sources, nonlinear optics and spectroscopy, ultrafast spectroscopy, optical combs, atoms in high fields, novel applications of laser spectroscopy, spectroscopic tests of fundamental physics, laser spectroscopy enabled applications. This volume presents most of the invited talks and hot topics.