Laser wakefield excitation and measurement on a femtosecond time scale: Theory and experiment. Progress report, September 1, 1994--August 31, 1995

A brief discussion was given for each of the following topics: superluminous wake excitation; photon frequency-shift (photon accelerator) spectroscopy; focusing, diffraction and 2D spectral shift; Raman self-modulation effects; optical preaccelerator; accelerator physics developments; experimental facilities; experimental results--pressure-tunable harmonic generation; experiments in progress--time-domain Rayleigh interferometry; Russian collaboration; and technology transfer.