This series, established in 1965, is concerned with recent developments in the general area of atomic, molecular and optical physics. The field is in a state of rapid growth, as new experimental and theoretical techniques are used on many old and new problems.
Topics covered include related applied areas, such as atmospheric science, astrophysics, surface physics and laser physics. Articles are written by distinguished experts who are active in their research fields.
The articles contain both relevant review material and detailed descriptions of important recent developments.

For many contemporary physics experiments, the use of an optical cavity has become a powerful tool for enhancement in detection sensitivities, nonlinear interactions, and quantum dynamics. Indeed, an optical cavity allows one to extend the interaction length between matter and field, to build up the optical power, to impose a well-defined mode structure on the electromagnetic field, to enable extreme nonlinear optics, and to study manifestly quantum mechanical behavior associated with the modified vacuum structure and/or the large field associated with a single photon confined to a small volume. Experimental activities that have benefited from the use of optical cavities appear in such diverse areas as ultra-sensitive detection for classical laser spectroscopy, nonlinear optical devices, optical frequency metrology and precision measurement, and cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED). Of course the most important application of optical cavities is in laser physics itself. However, in this article we will concentrate on the various applications of external optical cavities (independent from lasers) that take advantage of the common physical properties associated with resonator physics.