Lasers and synergetics : a colloquium on coherence and self-organization in nature

I Introduction.- Contributions of Hermann Haken to Our Understanding of Coherence and Selforganization in Nature.- II Instabilities in Lasers.- Laser Physics: Yesterday and Today (With 4 Figures).- Recent Advances in Laser Instabilities (With 4 Figures).- Instabilities, Spatial and Temporal Patterns in Passive Optical Systems (With 11 Figures).- Optical Instabilities in Semiconductors (With 13 Figures).- III Fluctuations in Quantum Optics.- The Polarization Symmetric Laser (With 6 Figures).- Decay of Unstable Equilibria (With 3 Figures).- IV After-Dinner Speech.- Synergetics and Weltanschauung (With 8 Figures).- V Methods of Synergetics.- Boltzmann-Gibbs Entropy as a Measure of Order in Self-Organizing (Synergetic) Systems.- On the Slaving Principle.- Solutions of Fokker-Planck Equations in Terms of Matrix Continued Fractions (With 8 Figures).- VI Coherence and Structure in Physical Systems.- Ultrafast Coherent Raman Spectroscopy (With 6 Figures).- Coherence in the Transport of a Quantum Particle (With 4 Figures).- Structure Formation in Polymer Systems (With 13 Figures).- VII Selforganization in Biological Systems.- A General Approach to Complex Systems in Bioholonics (With 8 Figures).- Toward a Physical (Synergetic) Theory of Biological Coordination (With 4 Figures).- Synergetics and Social Science (With 12 Figures).- Hermann Haken's Publications.- Index of Contributors.