Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscopy: Investigation of Ferroelectric, Dielectric, and Semiconductor Materials and Devices is the definitive reference on an important tool to characterize ferroelectric, dielectric and semiconductor materials. Written by the inventor, the book reviews the methods for applying the technique to key materials applications, including the measurement of ferroelectric materials at the atomic scale and the visualization and measurement of semiconductor materials and devices at a high level of sensitivity. Finally, the book reviews new insights this technique has given to material and device physics in ferroelectric and semiconductor materials. The book is appropriate for those involved in the development of ferroelectric, dielectric and semiconductor materials devices in academia and industry.

Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the most common and widely studied conducting polymers due to its excellent electro-chemical and electrical properties and its various applications in areas such as solar cell technologies, drug delivery, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), field-effect transistors (FETs), sensors, electro-chromic display, etc. PANI thin films play an important role in energy storage and conversion devices and show great potential in the supercapacitors owing to their high specific capacitance, high flexibility, and low cost. However, no in-depth information about this emerging PANI thin film technology is available. Properties, Techniques, and Applications of Polyaniline (PANI) Thin Films: Emerging Research and Opportunities is an essential publication that focuses on high-throughput synthesis of PANI thin films and their characterization techniques. The book also covers promising applications of PANI thin films and applications including solar cells. Featuring research on topics such as solar cells, post-synthesis treatments, and physiochemistry, this book is ideally designed for scientists, industry practitioners, engineers, managers, academicians, researchers, and students seeking coverage in the areas of polymeric applications.

Future Directions in Silicon Photonics, Volume 101 in the Semiconductors and Semimetals series, highlights new advances in the field, with this updated volume presenting the latest developments as discussed by esteemed leaders in the field silicon photonics.

A modern challenge is for solar cell materials to enable the highest solar energy conversion efficiencies, at costs as low as possible, and at an energy balance as sustainable as necessary in the future. This textbook explains the principles, concepts and materials used in solar cells. It combines basic knowledge about solar cells and the demanded criteria for the materials with a comprehensive introduction into each of the four classes of materials for solar cells, i.e. solar cells based on crystalline silicon, epitaxial layer systems of III-V semiconductors, thin-film absorbers on foreign substrates, and nano-composite absorbers. In this sense, it bridges a gap between basic literature on the physics of solar cells and books specialized on certain types of solar cells.The last five years had several breakthroughs in photovoltaics and in the research on solar cells and solar cell materials. We consider them in this second edition. For example, the high potential of crystalline silicon with charge-selective hetero-junctions and alkaline treatments of thin-film absorbers, based on chalcopyrite, enabled new records. Research activities were boosted by the class of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites, a promising newcomer in the field.This is essential reading for students interested in solar cells and materials for solar cells. It encourages students to solve tasks at the end of each chapter. It has been well applied for postgraduate students with background in materials science, engineering, chemistry or physics.

This book provides an introduction to quantum cascade lasers, including the basic underlying models used to describe the device. It aims at giving a synthetic view of the topic including the aspects of the physics, the technology, and the use of the device. It should also provide a guide for the application engineer to use this device in systems. The book is based on lecture notes of a class given for Masters and beginning PhD students. The idea is to provide an introduction to the new and exciting developments that intersubband transitions have brought to the use of the mid-infrared and terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The book provides an introductory part to each topic so that it can be used in a self-contained way, while references to the literature will allow deeper studies for further research.

Dispersion dynamics are developed from the stable wave packet in wave mechanics. They are used first in a physical treatment of creation and annihilation, and then applied to measurements in high temperature superconductivity. The dynamics require that the negative energy solution to relativity equations implies negative rest mass in the antiparticle. Diracs positive mass for his first order equation is inconsistent with dispersion dynamics. The processing of the ceramic cuprates links the superconductivity not to the isotope effect, as in low temperature superconductors, but to chemical holes in the planar HiTc ceramics. The Hall coefficient is negative in the former case, but positive in the latter -- even though the Lorentz force can act on neither voids nor immobile ionic nuclei. Interpretation of the coefficient is an old anomaly. In fact, whether in metals, in p-type semiconductors or in HiTc ceramics, the carriers are all negatively charged. Dispersion dynamics show that the positive coefficient is a consequence of negative second derivatives in the dispersion of conduction bands in semiconductors, in certain metals and in high temperature superconductors.Existing data from HiTc compounds, especially data from processing, are reinterpreted to show how chemical and physical holes are formed. The holes that are evident in the Hall effect at normal temperatures are readily available to bond with electron pairs at lower temperatures for superconductivity. Wave functions in dispersion dynamics show how the conduction is non-resistive. The book contrasts the two types of superconductivity while uniting the mechanism in them for non-resistive behaviour.

This book is devoted to experimental and theoretical investigations on intimate interrelations between morphology, intra-gap and near-band-gap electron spectrum N(E), and macroscopic properties of polycrystalline and spatially non-homogeneous amorphous semiconductors and insulators.