Preface [to the Special Issue]

This Special Issue of the IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics is devoted to papers presented at the 4th Conference on Chemical and Molecular Lasers held in St Louis, MO, USA, 21-23 October 1974. This conference was held in cooperation with the AP/IEEE Joint Council on Quantum Electronics and the IEEE Quantum Electronics Council, and received financial support from the Chemistry Directorate of the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The purposes of the Conference were principally to bring together people active in the area and to present new research results. One hundred five papers were presented at the meeting; included in this Journal are 7 full length papers andD igests of the remaining 98 papers.