New Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science now online

For immediate release

MELVILLE, NEW YORK, June 7, 2002 -- The new Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science, sponsored by the American Physical Society and the American Institute of Physics, is now available online at http://www.vjultrafast.org. Edited by Philip H. Bucksbaum of the University of Michigan, this monthly online collection of articles features the latest research in ultrafast techniques, sources, and phenomena covering a broad range of fields, including chemistry, biophysics, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, photonics, high field physics, and applications.

Ultrafast science deals with physical phenomena that occur in the range of one-trillionth of a second (one picosecond) to one-quadrillionth of a second (one femtosecond), or even less. These phenomena are typically probed using extremely short pulses of coherent laser light. Another useful aspect of intense, ultrafast light sources is that they can produce very high electric fields. Ultrafast technology can be utilized for research or applications across the fields of physics, chemistry, optics, biology, and laser engineering. Examples include the breaking of molecular bonds, movement of electrons in microcircuits, transmission of optical pulses in a telecommunications fiber, or acceleration of charged particles.

Articles that appear in the Virtual Journal are selected from recent issues of 50 participating journals. The journals of AIP, APS and 8 other publishers hosted on the AIP Online Journal Publishing Service (OJPS) platform are currently contributing source material to the series of Virtual Journals in Science and Technology. (See http://www.virtualjournals.org) The journals Science and Nature also participate, as does SIAM Journal on Computing. Four titles from OSA have joined as well, including Journal of the Optical Society of America A and Journal of the Optical Society of America B, Optics Express, and Journal of Optical Technology.

From the user's perspective, the Virtual Journals look and feel like "real" journals, providing useful features such as:

Tables of contents

Freely available abstracts

Links to source journal home pages, abstracts, and full-text articles

E-mail alerting

Subscribers to a given source journal can seamlessly access full-text articles from that journal, while non-subscribers will have the option to purchase articles for immediate online delivery. Any user with a subscription to at least one source journal on the OJPS can search the full set of OJPS Virtual Journals.

Four additional Virtual Journals are also accessible online. The Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology, the Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research, the Virtual Journal of Quantum Information and the Virtual Journal of Applications of Superconductivity can be found at www.virtualjournals.org. New Virtual Journals will be launched as warranted, focusing on new and developing fields that cut across a range of traditional publications.

Underlying objectives of the Virtual Journals series are to provide:

Quick access to large sets of papers in cutting-edge fields

Affordable access to those with specialized interests

Alerts about newly published research in key areas

An alternative to the creation of new, expensive niche journals

The American Physical Society is a membership organization that is dedicated to the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics. APS publishes leading international physics journals, including Physical Review and Physical Review Letters, organizes major scientific meetings, and provides strong outreach programs in education and international and public affairs.

The American Institute of Physics is a not-for-profit corporation chartered in 1931 to provide publishing and distribution services for scientific and technical societies; AIP also publishes eight of its own journals as well as conference proceedings in physics and related areas. AIP's Online Journal Publishing Service hosts more than 100 online publications, including journals from AIP, a number of AIP Member Societies, and other prestigious societies.

For additional information see www.vjultrafast.org or contact vjultrafast@aps.org