Thermoelectric devices could play an important role in making efficient use of our energy resources but their efficiency would need to be increased for their wide scale application. There is a multidisciplinary search for materials with an enhanced thermoelectric responses for use in such devices. This volume covers the latest ideas and developments in this research field, covering topics ranging from the fabrication and characterization of new materials, particularly those with strong electron correlation, use of nanostructured, layered materials and composites, through to theoretical work to gain a deeper understanding of thermoelectric behavior. It should be a useful guide and stimulus to all working in this very topical field.

Since its inception in 1966, the series of numbered volumes known as "Semiconductors and Semimetals" has distinguished itself through the careful selection of well-known authors, editors, and contributors. The "Willardson and Beer" Series, as it is widely known, has succeeded in publishing numerous landmark volumes and chapters. Not only did many of these volumes make an impact at the time of their publication, but they continue to be well-cited years after their original release. Recently, Professor Eicke R. Weber of the University of California at Berkeley joined as a co-editor of the series. Professor Weber, a well-known expert in the field of semiconductor materials, will further contribute to continuing the series' tradition of publishing timely, highly relevant, and long-impacting volumes. Some of the recent volumes, such as "Hydrogen in Semiconductors, Imperfections in III/V Materials, Epitaxial Microstructures, High-Speed Heterostructure Devices, Oxygen in Silicon, " and others promise that this tradition will be maintained and even expanded. Reflecting the truly interdisciplinary nature of the field that the series covers, the volumes in "Semiconductors and Semimetals" have been and will continue to be of great interest to physicists, chemists, materials scientists, and device engineers in modern industry.

This thesis presents first observations of superconductivity in one- or two-atomic-scale thin layer materials. The thesis begins with a historical overview of superconductivity and the electronic structure of two-dimensional materials, and mentions that these key ingredients lead to the possibility of the two-dimensional superconductor with high phase-transition temperature and critical magnetic field. Thereafter, the thesis moves its focus onto the implemented experiments, in which mainly two different materials thallium-deposited silicon surfaces and metal-intercalated bilayer graphenes, are used. The study of the first material is the first experimental demonstration of both a gigantic Rashba effect and superconductivity in the materials supposed to be superconductors without spatial inversion symmetry. The study of the latter material is relevant to superconductivity in a bilayer graphene, which was a big experimental challenge for a decade, and has been first achieved by the author. The description of the generic and innovative measurement technique, highly effective in probing electric resistivity of ultra-thin materials unstable in an ambient environment, makes this thesis a valuable source for researchers not only in surface physics but also in nano-materials science and other condensed-matter physics.

This book describes the physics of phase change memory devices, starting from basic operation to reliability issues. The book gives a comprehensive overlook of PCM with particular attention to the electrical transport and the phase transition physics between the two states. The book also contains design engineering details on PCM cell architecture, PCM cell arrays (including electrical circuit management), as well as the full spectrum of possible future applications.

The book presents information about Terahertz science, Terahertz photodetectors and Terahertz Lasers. A special emphasis is given to room temperature operation of long wavelength photodetectors based on novel quantum dots (Centered Defect Spherical Quantum Dots). Moreover, a complete analysis of systems based on Quantum Cascade structures to detect far infrared wavelengths is provided. Finally, the book presents Terahertz laser principles considering multi-color lasers in this range of wavelengths. Written as a background for graduate students in the Optics field.

Full and accessible coverage of the key concepts governing the reduction, containment, and measurement of unintentional electromagnetic radiation.
The rapid proliferation of computers, CD players, and other digital electronic systems in recent years has made unintentional electromagnetic radiation increasingly difficult to control. Control and Measurement of Unintentional Electromagnetic Radiation provides a thorough examination of the basic principles underlying the problem, enabling readers to design solutions and applications to combat it effectively. Using a simple mathematical approach limited to algebra and trigonometry, this timely book meets the growing need for a more complete understanding of electromagnetic phenomena. Essential reading for electronics system designers and users as well as consultants and researchers, this book offers:
* An overview of intentional electromagnetic radiators -- antennas
* Examination and modeling of sinusoidal circuit-current radiations
* Frequency domain descriptions of periodic voltages, including a simple method for decomposing many often-used periodic voltage waveshapes into their sinusoidal components
* Easily obtainable descriptions of the measured radiations of periodic, time-varying circuit currents
* Techniques for controlling circuit-current radiations by adjusting different parameters, such as voltage amplitude and waveshape, circuit-current path geometry and impedance
* Radiation containment principles -- fully and partially contained radiating currents, slot antennas, and more
* Basic coverage of the radiation measurement process--from antenna calibration, measurement, geometry, and the measurement environment to test-site construction and validation.

Life-Cycle Assessment of Semiconductors presents the first and thus far only available transparent and complete life cycle assessment of semiconductor devices. A lack of reliable semiconductor LCA data has been a major challenge to evaluation of the potential environmental benefits of information technologies (IT). The analysis and results presented in this book will allow a higher degree of confidence and certainty in decisions concerning the use of IT in efforts to reduce climate change and other environmental effects. Coverage includes but is not limited to semiconductor manufacturing trends by product type and geography, unique coverage of life-cycle assessment, with a focus on uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of energy and global warming missions for CMOS logic devices, life cycle assessment of flash memory and life cycle assessment of DRAM. The information and conclusions discussed here will be highly relevant and useful to individuals and institutions.

This book provides technological perspective and comprehensive overview on the research efforts related to II-VI group cadmium based semiconducting nanomaterials. It describes state-of-the-art information on different synthesis methods for preparation of these materials using a variety of experimental strategies. The effects of synthesis roots on structural, thermal, mechanical, lattice vibronic, electronic, optical and carrier transport characteristics of these nano-structures are systematically analyzed. A wide target readership comprising of students, researchers, scholars, scientists, technicians, academicians, industrialists can benefit from this book, as cadmium based semiconductors possess significant research and industrial interest thanks to their innovative properties.

The Proceedings of First International Conference on Opto-Electronics and Applied Optics 2014, IEM OPTRONIX 2014 presents the research contributions presented in the conference by researchers from both India and abroad. Contributions from established scientists as well as students are included. The book is organized to enable easy access to various topics of interest. The first part includes the Keynote addresses by Phillip Russell, Max Planck Institute of the Light Sciences, Erlangen, Germany and Lorenzo Pavesi, University of Trento, Italy. The second part focuses on the Plenary Talks given by eminent scientists, namely, Azizur Rahman, City University London, London; Bishnu Pal, President, The Optical Society of India; Kamakhya Ghatak, National Institute of Technology, Agartala; Kehar Singh, Former Professor, India Institute of Technology Delhi; Mourad Zghal, SUPCOM, University of Carthage, Tunisia; Partha Roy Chaudhuri, IIT Kharagpur; S K. Bhadra, CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Kolkata; Sanjib Chatterjee, Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore; Takeo Sasaki, Tokyo University, Japan; Lakshminarayan Hazra, Emeritus Professor, University of Calcutta, Kolkata; Shyam Akashe, ITM University, Gwalior and Vasudevan Lakshminarayanan, University of Waterloo, Canada. The subsequent parts focus on topic-wise contributory papers in Application of Solar Energy; Diffraction Tomography; E.M. Radiation Theory and Antenna; Fibre Optics and Devices; Photonics for Space Applications; Micro-Electronics and VLSI; Nano-Photonics, Bio-Photonics and Bio-Medical Optics; Non-linear Phenomena and Chaos; Optical and Digital Data and Image Processing; Optical Communications and Networks; Optical Design; Opto-Electronic Devices; Opto-Electronic Materials and Quantum Optics and Information Processing.

This book describes a novel, efficient and powerful scheme for designing and evaluating the performance characteristics of any electronic filter designed with predefined specifications. The author explains techniques that enable readers to eliminate complicated manual, and thus error-prone and time-consuming, steps of traditional design techniques. The presentation includes demonstration of efficient automation, using an ANSI C language program, which accepts any filter design specification (e.g. Chebyschev low-pass filter, cut-off frequency, pass-band ripple etc.) as input and generates as output a SPICE(Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) format netlist. Readers then can use this netlist to run simulations with any version of the popular SPICE simulator, increasing accuracy of the final results, without violating any of the key principles of the traditional design scheme.

This book discusses the analysis, circuit modeling, and applications of transmission lines loaded with electrically small resonators (mostly resonators inspired by metamaterials), focusing on the study of the symmetry-related electromagnetic properties of these loaded lines. It shows that the stopband functionality (resonance) that these lines exhibit can be controlled by the relative orientation between the line and the resonator, which determines their mutual coupling. Such resonance controllability, closely related to symmetry, is essential for the design of several microwave components, such as common-mode suppressed differential lines, novel microwave sensors based on symmetry disruption, and spectral signature radio-frequency barcodes. Other interesting aspects, such as stopband bandwidth enhancement (due to inter-resonator coupling, and related to complex modes) and magnetoelectric coupling between the transmission lines and split-ring resonators, are also included in the book.

This book provides expert coverage of modern and novel aspects of the study of vortex matter, dynamics, and pinning in nanostructured and multi-component superconductors. Vortex matter in superconducting materials is a field of enormous beauty and intellectual challenge, which began with the theoretical prediction of vortices by A. Abrikosov (Nobel Laureate). Vortices, vortex dynamics, and pinning are key features in many of today's human endeavors: from the huge superconducting accelerating magnets and detectors at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which opened new windows of knowledge on the universe, to the tiny superconducting transceivers using Rapid Single Flux Quanta, which have opened a revolutionary means of communication. In recent years, two new features have added to the intrinsic beauty and complexity of the subject: nanostructured/nanoengineered superconductors, and the discovery of a range of new materials showing multi-component (multi-gap) superconductivity. In this book, leading researchers survey the most exciting and important recent developments in the field. Topics covered include: the use of scanning Hall probe microscopy to visualize interactions of a single vortex with pinning centers; Magneto-Optical Imaging for investigating what vortex avalanches are, why they appear, and how they can be controlled; and the vortex interactions responsible for the second magnetization peak. Other chapters discuss nanoengineered pinning centers of vortices for improved current-carrying capabilities, current anisotropy in cryomagnetic devices in relation to the pinning landscape, and the new physics associated with the discovery of new superconducting materials with multi-component superconductivity. The book offers something for almost everybody interested in the field: from experimental techniques to visualize vortices and study their dynamics, to a state-of-the-art theoretical microscopic approach to multicomponent superconductivity.

Semiconductor heterostructures represent the backbone for an increasing variety of electronic and photonic devices, for applications including information storage, communication and material treatment, to name but a few. Novel structural and material concepts are needed in order to further push the performance limits of present devices and to open up new application areas. This thesis demonstrates how key performance characteristics of three completely different types of semiconductor lasers can be tailored using clever nanostructure design and epitaxial growth techniques. All aspects of laser fabrication are discussed, from design and growth of nanostructures using metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy, to fabrication and characterization of complete devices.

This book underscores the essential principles of photocatalysis and provides an update on its scientific foundations, research advances, and current opinions, and interpretations. It consists of an introduction to the concepts that form the backbone of photocatalysis, from the principles of solid-state chemistry and physics to the role of reactive oxidizing species. Having recognised the organic link with chemical kinetics, part of the book describes kinetic concepts as they apply to photocatalysis. The dependence of rate on the reaction conditions and parameters is detailed, the retrospective and prospective aspects of the mechanism of photocatalysis are highlighted, and the adsorption models, photocatalytic rate expressions, and kinetic disguises are examined. This book also discusses the structure, property, and activity relationship of prototypical semiconductor photocatalysts and reviews how to extend their spectral absorption to the visible region to enable the effective use of visible solar spectrum. Lastly, it presents strategies for deriving substantially improved photoactivity from semiconductor materials to support the latest applications and potential trends.

"FIB Nanostructures "reviews a range of methods, including milling, etching, deposition, and implantation, applied to manipulate structures at the nanoscale. Focused Ion Beam (FIB) is an important tool for manipulating the structure of materials at the nanoscale, and substantially extends the range of possible applications of nanofabrication. FIB techniques are widely used in the semiconductor industry and in materials research for deposition and ablation, including the fabrication of nanostructures such as nanowires, nanotubes, nanoneedles, graphene sheets, quantum dots, etc. The main objective of this book is to create a platform for knowledge sharing and dissemination of the latest advances in novel areas of FIB for nanostructures and related materials and devices, and to provide a comprehensive introduction to the field and directions for further research. Chapters written by leading scientists throughout the world create a fundamental bridge between focused ion beam and nanotechnology that is intended tostimulate readers' interest in developing new types of nanostructures for application to semiconductor technology. These applications are increasingly important for the future development of materials science, energy technology, and electronic devices. The book can be recommended for physics, electrical engineering, and materials science departments as a reference on materials science and device design."

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the thermal issues in photovoltaics. It also offers an extensive overview of the physics involved and insights into possible thermal optimizations of the different photovoltaic device technologies.In general, temperature negatively affects the efficiency of photovoltaic devices. The first chapter describes the temperature-induced losses in photovoltaic devices and reviews the strategies to overcome them. The second chapter introduces the concept of temperature coefficient, the underlying physics and some guidelines for reducing their negative impacts. Subsequent chapters offer a comprehensive and general thermal model of photovoltaic devices, and review how current and emerging technologies, mainly solar cells but also thermophotovoltaic devices, can benefit from thermal optimizations.Throughout the book, the authors argue that the energy yield of photovoltaic devices can be optimized by taking their thermal behavior and operating conditions into consideration in their design.

This book explores the impacts of important material parameters on the electrical properties of indium arsenide (InAs) nanowires, which offer a promising channel material for low-power electronic devices due to their small bandgap and high electron mobility. Smaller diameter nanowires are needed in order to scale down electronic devices and improve their performance. However, to date the properties of thin InAs nanowires and their sensitivity to various factors were not known. The book presents the first study of ultrathin InAs nanowires with diameters below 10 nm are studied, for the first time, establishing the channel in field-effect transistors (FETs) and the correlation between nanowire diameter and device performance. Moreover, it develops a novel method for directly correlating the atomic-level structure with the properties of individual nanowires and their device performance. Using this method, the electronic properties of InAs nanowires and the performance of the FETs they are used in are found to change with the crystal phases (wurtzite, zinc-blend or a mix phase), the axis direction and the growth method. These findings deepen our understanding of InAs nanowires and provide a potential way to tailor device performance by controlling the relevant parameters of the nanowires and devices.

The common belief is that light is completely reflected by metals. In reality they also exhibit an amazing property that is not so widely known: under some conditions light flows along a metallic surface as if it were glued to it. Physical phenomena related to these light waves, which are called Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPP), have given rise to the research field of plasmonics. This thesis explores four interesting topics within plasmonics: extraordinary optical transmission, negative refractive index metamaterials, plasmonic devices for controlling SPPs, and field enhancement phenomena near metal nanoparticles.

This book presents the principles, experimental technologies, up-to-date research findings and applications of various optical-computing technologies and devices. It also discusses semiconductor multiple quantum well (MQW) photoelectronic devices, vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs), lasers, micro optical elements and diffractive optical elements, optical storage, optical parallel interconnections, and optical-buffer technology as the main technologies for optical computing. Furthermore, it explores the potential of optical-computing technology. It offers those involved in optical design, photonics, and photoelectronic research and related industries insights into the fundamentals and theories of optical computing, enabling them and to extend and develop the functions of fundamental elements to meet the requirement of optical-computing systems.

Neutron Scattering from Magnetic Materials is a comprehensive account of the present state of the art in the use of the neutron scattering for the study of magnetic materials. The chapters have been written by well-known researchers who are at the forefront of this field and have contributed directly to the development of the techniques described. Neutron scattering probes magnetic phenomena directly. The generalized magnetic susceptibility, which can be expressed as a function of wave vector and energy, contains all the information there is to know about the statics and dynamics of a magnetic system and this quantity is directly related to the neutron scattering cross section. Polarized neutron scattering techniques raise the sophistication of measurements to even greater levels and gives additional information in many cases. The present book is largely devoted to the application of polarized neutron scattering to the study of magnetic materials. It will be of particular interest to graduate students and researchers who plan to investigate magnetic materials using neutron scattering.
- Written by a group of scientist who have contributed directly in developing the techniques described.
- A complete treatment of the polarized neutron scattering not available in literature.
- Gives practical hits to solve magnetic structure and determine exchange interactions in magnetic solids.
- Application of neutron scattering to the study of the novel electronic materials.

This book is the first comprehensive collection of electronic aspects of different kinds of elastomer composites, including combinations of synthetic, natural and thermoplastic elastomers with different conducting fillers like metal nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, or graphenes, and many more. It covers elastomer composites, which are useful in electronic applications, including chemical and physical as well as material science aspects. The presented elastomer composites have great potential for solving emerging new material application requirements, for example as flexible and wearable electronics. The book is structured and organized by the rubber/elastomer type: each chapter describes a different elastomer matrix and its composites. While introducing to important fundamentals, it is application-oriented, discussing the current issues and challenges in the field of elastomer composites. This book will thus appeal to researchers and scientists, to engineers and technologists, but also to graduate students, working on elastomer composites, or on electronics engineering with the composites, providing the readers with a sound introduction to the field and solutions to both fundamental and applied problems.

While basic features of polarons were well recognized a long time ago and have been described in a number of review papers and textbooks, interest in the role of electron-phonon interactions and polaron dynamics in di?- ent materials has recently gone through a vigorous revival. Electron-phonon interactions have been shown to be relevant in many inorganic and organic semiconductors and polymers, colossal magnetoresistance oxides, and tra- port through nanowires and quantum dots also often depends on vibronic displacements of ions. These interactions presumably play a role in hi- temperature superconductors as well. The continued interest in polarons extends beyond the physical description of advanced materials. The ?eld has been a testing ground for analytical, semi-analytical, and numerical techniques, such as path integrals, strong-coupling perturbation expansion, advanced variational methods, exact diagonalization, Quantum Monte Carlo, and other techniques. This book reviews some recent developments in the ?eld of polarons, starting with the basics and covering a number of active directions of research. Single- and multipolaron theories have o?ered more insight into colossal magnetoresistance and in a broad spectrum of ph- ical properties of structures with reduced dimension and dimensionality such as transport, optical absorption, Raman scattering, photoluminescence, magneto-optics, etc. While nobody - at present - has a ?nal theory of hi- temperature superconductivity, we discuss one alternative (polaronic) route. We have bene?ted from discussions with many experts in the ?eld.

"Real time" imaging techniques have assisted materials science studies especially for non-ambient environments. These techniques have never been collectively featured in a single venue. The book is an assembly of materials studies utilizing cutting edge real time imaging techniques, emphasizing the significance and impact of those techniques.

The fundamental concept of quantum coherence plays a central role in quantum physics, cutting across disciplines of quantum optics, atomic and condensed matter physics. Quantum coherence represents a universal property of the quantum s- tems that applies both to light and matter thereby tying together materials and p- nomena. Moreover, the optical coherence can be transferred to the medium through the light-matter interactions. Since the early days of quantum mechanics there has been a desire to control dynamics of quantum systems. The generation and c- trol of quantum coherence in matter by optical means, in particular, represents a viable way to achieve this longstanding goal and semiconductor nanostructures are the most promising candidates for controllable quantum systems. Optical generation and control of coherent light-matter states in semiconductor quantum nanostructures is precisely the scope of the present book. Recently, there has been a great deal of interest in the subject of quantum coh- ence. We are currently witnessing parallel growth of activities in different physical systems that are all built around the central concept of manipulation of quantum coherence. The burgeoning activities in solid-state systems, and semiconductors in particular, have been strongly driven by the unprecedented control of coherence that previously has been demonstrated in quantum optics of atoms and molecules, and is now taking advantage of the remarkable advances in semiconductor fabrication technologies. A recent impetus to exploit the coherent quantum phenomena comes from the emergence of the quantum information paradigm.