Materials science and applied physics : 2nd Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics, México City, México, 6-10 September 2004

The Second Mexican Meeting on Mathematical and Experimental Physics brought together scientists from many different fields. The Meeting was divided into three Symposia: (i) Materials Science and Applied Physics, (ii) Statistical Physics and Beyond, (iii) Gravitation and Cosmology. This volume corresponds to the Materials Science and Applied Physics symposium and contains contributions in a wide range of subjects reflecting the research being performed at several Mexican universities and institutes as well as some outstanding invited speakers from abroad showing us some areas where, for several reasons, Mexico has developed little or no research. All the papers report original high-quality research work in subjects such as: (i) laser materials processing and laser ablation, (ii) optical properties of materials with scattered laser light, (iii) biophysics and biosystems, (iv) complex fluids and (v) optical manipulation of microparticles with laser beams.