The book considers the main growth-related phenomena occurring during epitaxial growth, such as thermal etching, doping, segregation of the main elements and impurities, coexistence of several phases at the crystal surface and segregation-enhanced diffusion.
It is complete with tables, graphs and figures, which allow fast determination of suitable growth parameters for practical applications.

This thesis presents results crucial to the emerging field of indirect excitons. These specially designed quasiparticles give the unique opportunity to study fundamental properties of quantum degenerate Bose gases in semiconductors. Furthermore, indirect excitons allow for the creation of novel optoelectronic devices where excitons are used in place of electrons. Excitonic devices are explored for the development of advanced signal processing seamlessly coupled with optical communication. The thesis presents and describes the author's imaging experiments that led to the discovery of spin transport of excitons. The many firsts presented herein include the first studies of an excitonic conveyer, leading to the discovery of the dynamical localization-delocalization transition for excitons, and the first excitonic ramp and excitonic diode with no energy-dissipating voltage gradient.

The exponential growth of the number of internet nodes has suddenly created a widespread demand for high-speed optical and electronic devices, circuits, and systems. The new optical revolution has replaced modular, general-purpose building blocks by end-to-end solutions. Greater levels of integration on a single chip enable higher performance and lower cost. The mainstream VLSI technologies such as BiCmos and CMOS continue to take over the territories thus far claimed by GaAs and InP devices. This calls for an up-to-date book describing the design of high-speed electronic circuits for optical communication using modern techniques in a low-cost CMOS process. High-Speed CMOS Circuits for Optical Receivers covers the design of the world's first and second 10 Gb/s clock and data recovery circuits fabricated in a pure CMOS process. The second prototype meets some of the critical requirements recommended by the SONET OC-192 standard. The clock and data recovery circuits consume a power several times lower than in prototypes built in other fabrication processes. High-Speed CMOS Circuits for Optical Receivers describes novel techniques for implementation of such high-speed, high-performance circuits in a pure CMOS process. High-Speed CMOS Circuits for Optical Receivers is written for researchers and students interested in high-speed and mixed-mode circuit design with focus on CMOS circuit techniques. Designers working on various high-speed circuit projects for data communication, including optical com., giga bit ethernet will also find it of interest.

Advances in the semiconductor technology have enabled steady, exponential im- provement in the performance of integrated circuits. Miniaturization allows the integration of a larger number of transistors with enhanced switching speed. Novel transistor structures and passivation materials diminish circuit delay by minimizing parasitic electrical capacitance. These advances, however, pose several challenges for the thermal engineering of integrated circuits. The low thermal conductivities of passivation layers result in large temperature rises and temperature gradient magni- tudes, which degrade electrical characteristics of transistors and reduce lifetimes of interconnects. As dimensions of transistors and interconnects decrease, the result- ing changes in current density and thermal capacitance make these elements more susceptible to failure during brief electrical overstress. This work develops a set of high-resolution measurement techniques which de- termine temperature fields in transistors and interconnects, as well as the thermal properties of their constituent films. At the heart of these techniques is the thermore- flectance thermometry method, which is based on the temperature dependence of the reflectance of metals. Spatial resolution near 300 nm and temporal resolution near IOns are demonstrated by capturing transient temperature distributions in intercon- nects and silicon-on-insulator (SOl) high-voltage transistors. Analyses of transient temperature data obtained from interconnect structures yield thermal conductivities and volumetric heat capacities of thin films.

Neutron stars are the most compact astronomical objects in the universe which are accessible by direct observation. Studying neutron stars means studying physics in regimes unattainable in any terrestrial laboratory.

Understanding their observed complex phenomena requires a wide range of scientific disciplines, including the nuclear and condensed matter physics of very dense matter in neutron star interiors, plasma physics and quantum electrodynamics of magnetospheres, and the relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics of electron-positron pulsar winds interacting with some ambient medium. Not to mention the test bed neutron stars provide for general relativity theories, and their importance as potential sources of gravitational waves. It is this variety of disciplines which, among others, makes neutron star research so fascinating, not only for those who have been working in the field for many years but also for students and young scientists.

The aim of this book is to serve as a reference work which not only reviews the progress made since the early days of pulsar astronomy, but especially focuses on questions such as: "What have we learned about the subject and how did we learn it?," "What are the most important open questions in this area?" and "What new tools, telescopes, observations, and calculations are needed to answer these questions?."

All authors who have contributed to this book have devoted a significant part of their scientific careers to exploring the nature of neutron stars and understanding pulsars. Everyone has paid special attention to writing educational comprehensive review articles with the needs of beginners, students and young scientists as potential readers in mind. This book will be a valuable source of information for these groups.

Emerging Memories: Technologies and Trends attempts to provide background and a description of the basic technology, function and properties of emerging as well as discussing potentially suitable applications.
This book explores a range of new memory products and technologies. The concept for some of these memories has been around for years. A few completely new. Some involve materials that have been in volume production in other type of devices for some time. Ferro-electrics, for example, have been used in capacitors for more than 30 years. In addition to looking at using known devices and materials in novel ways, there are new technologies being investigated such as DNA memories, light memories, molecular memories, and carbon nanotube memories, as well as the new polymer memories which hold the potential for the significant manufacturing reduction.
Emerging Memories: Technologies and Trends is a useful reference for the professional engineer in the semiconductor industry.

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date description of the Josephson effect, a topic of never-ending interest in both fundamental and applied physics. In this volume, world-renowned experts present the unique aspects of the physics of the Josephson effect, resulting from the use of new materials, of hybrid architectures and from the possibility of realizing nanoscale junctions. These new experimental capabilities lead to systems where novel coherent phenomena and transport processes emerge. All this is of great relevance and impact, especially when combined with the didactic approach of the book. The reader will benefit from a general and modern view of coherent phenomena in weakly-coupled superconductors on a macroscopic scale. Topics that have been only recently discussed in specialized papers and in short reviews are described here for the first time and organized in a general framework. An important section of the book is also devoted to applications, with focus on long-term, future applications. In addition to a significant number of illustrations, the book includes numerous tables for comparative studies on technical aspects.

This book is dedicated to the new two-dimensional one-atomic-layer-thick materials such as graphene, metallic chalcogenides, silicene and other 2D materials. The book describes their main physical properties and applications in nanoelctronics, photonics, sensing and computing. A large part of the book deals with graphene and its amazing physical properties. Another important part of the book deals with semiconductor monolayers such as MoS2 with impressive applications in photonics, and electronics. Silicene and germanene are the atom-thick counterparts of silicon and germanium with impressive applications in electronics and photonics which are still unexplored. Consideration of two-dimensional electron gas devices conclude the treatment. The physics of 2DEG is explained in detail and the applications in THz and IR region are discussed. Both authors are working currently on these 2D materials developing theory and applications.

The book deals with the numerical simulation of noise in semiconductor devices operating in linear (small-signal) and nonlinear (large-signal) conditions. The main topics of the book are: An overview of the physical basis of noise in semiconductor devices, a detailed treatment of numerical noise simulation in small-signal conditions, and a presentation of innovative developments in the noise simulation of semiconductor devices operating in large-signal quasi-periodic conditions. The main benefit that the reader will derive from the book is the ability to understand, and, if needed, replicate the development of numerical, physics-based noise simulation of semiconductor devices in small-signal and large-signal conditions.

Primary goal of this book is to provide a cohesive description of the vast field of semiconductor quantum devices, with special emphasis on basic quantum-mechanical phenomena governing the electro-optical response of new-generation nanomaterials. The book will cover within a common language different types of optoelectronic nanodevices, including quantum-cascade laser sources and detectors, few-electron/exciton quantum devices, and semiconductor-based quantum logic gates. The distinguishing feature of the present volume is a unified microscopic treatment of quantum-transport and coherent-optics phenomena on ultrasmall space- and time-scales, as well as of their semiclassical counterparts. Content Level Research

The past five years have witnessed some dramatic developments in the general area of ferroelectric thin films materials and devices. Ferroelectrics are not new materials by any stretch ofimagination. Indeed, they have been known since the early partofthis century and popular ferroelectric materials such as Barium Titanate have been in use since the second world war. In the late sixties and seventies, a considerable amountofresearch and development effort was made to create a solid state nonvolatile memory using ferroelectrics in a vary simple matrix-addressed scheme. These attempts failed primarily due to problems associated with either the materials ordue to device architectures. The early eighties saw the advent of new materials processing approaches, such as sol-gel processing, that enabled researchers to fabricate sub-micron thin films of ferroelectric materials on a silicon substrate. These pioneering developments signaled the onsetofa revival in the areaofferroelectric thin films, especially ferroelectric nonvolatile memories. Research and development effort in ferroelectric materials and devices has now hit a feverish pitch, Many university laboratories, national laboratories and advanced R&D laboratories oflarge IC manufacturers are deeply involved in the pursuit of ferroelectric device technologies. Many companies worldwide are investing considerable manpower and resources into ferroelectric technologies. Some have already announced products ranging from embedded memories in micro controllers, low density stand-alone memories, microwave circuit elements, andrf identification tags. There is now considerable optimism that ferroelectric devices andproducts will occupy a significant market-share in the new millennium."

The monograph will be dedicated to SRAM (memory) design and test issues in nano-scaled technologies by adapting the cell design and chip design considerations to the growing process variations with associated test issues. Purpose: provide process-aware solutions for SRAM design and test challenges.

The book describes the fundamentals, latest developments and use of key experimental techniques for semiconductor research. It explains the application potential of various analytical methods and discusses the opportunities to apply particular analytical techniques to study novel semiconductor compounds, such as dilute nitride alloys. The emphasis is on the technique rather than on the particular system studied.

The Metal-Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET) is a key component in modern microelectronics. During the last decade, device physicists, researchers and engineers have been continuously faced with new elements making the task of MOSFET characterization increasingly crucial, as well as more difficult. The progressive miniaturization of devices has caused several phenomena to emerge and modify the performance of scaled-down MOSFETs. Localized degradation induced by hot carrier injection and Random Telegraph Signal (RTS) noise generated by individual traps are examples. It was thus unavoidable to develop new models and new characterization methods, or at least adapt the existing ones to cope with the special nature of these new phenomena. Characterization Methods for Submicron MOSFETs deals with techniques which show high potential for characterization of submicron devices. Throughout the book the focus is on the adaptation of such methods to resolve measurement problems relevant to VLSI devices and new materials, especially Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI). Characterization Methods for Submicron MOSFETs was written to provide help to device engineers and researchers to enable them to cope with the challenges they face. Without adequate device characterization, new physical phenomena and new types of defects or damage may not be well identified or dealt with, leading to an undoubted obstruction of the device development cycle. Audience: Researchers and graduate students familiar with MOS device physics, working in the field of device characterization and modeling. Also intended for industrial engineers working in device development, seeking to enlarge their understanding ofmeasurement methods. The book additionally addresses device-based characterization for material and process engineers and for circuit designers. A valuable reference that may be used as a text for advanced courses on the subject.

The discovery by J. G. Bednorz and K. A. Mtllier in 1986 that the superconducting state can exist in oxides at temperatures above 30 K stimulated research in the field of superconductivity and opened up a new field of research. Within a few years a large number of cuprate superconductors with transition temperatures well above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen have been found. The possibility of using liquid nitrogen as coolant re-stimulated interest in power applications of supercon ductivity. In this book an overview of the known high-Te superconductors and their physical properties is presented. Aspects related to conductor fabrication and high-current applications are emphasised. The material should be suitable for use in graduate level courses on superconductivity. Researchers in the field may profit from the large number of tables and references describing its status at the end of 1997. An introduction to high-To superconductivity must be based on the fundamental physical principles of normal-state electrical conductivity and the well-known characteristics of conventional superconductors. In Chapter 2 this background is provided. Crystal structures, anisotropic properties and general trends of the critical temperatures of the cuprate superconductors are described in Chapters 3 and 4. The processing of superconductor powders addressed in Chapter 5 affects considerably the current-carrying capacity of high-T. wires. In Chapter 6 several fabrication techniques for superconducting wires are described. In addition, the factors limiting the transport critical currents ofhigh-Te wires are discussed."

This book systematically describes free-standing films and self-supporting nanoarrays growing on rigid and flexible substrates, and discusses the numerous applications in electronics, energy generation and storage in detail. The chapters present the various fabrication techniques used for growing self-supporting materials on flexible and rigid substrates, and free-standing films composed of semiconductors, inorganic, polymer and carbon hybrid materials.

This book presents selected peer-reviewed contributions from the 2019 International Conference on "Physics and Mechanics of New Materials and Their Applications", PHENMA 2019 (Hanoi, Vietnam, 7-10 November, 2019), divided into four scientific themes: processing techniques, physics, mechanics, and applications of advanced materials. The book describes a broad spectrum of promising nanostructures, crystals, materials and composites with special properties. It presents nanotechnology approaches, modern environmentally friendly techniques and physical-chemical and mechanical studies of the structural-sensitive and physical-mechanical properties of materials. The obtained results are based on new achievements in material sciences and computational approaches, methods and algorithms (in particular, finite-element and finite-difference modeling) applied to the solution of different technological, mechanical and physical problems. The obtained results have a significant interest for theory, modeling and test of advanced materials. Other results are devoted to promising devices demonstrating high accuracy, longevity and new opportunities to work effectively under critical temperatures and high pressures, in aggressive media, etc. These devices demonstrate improved comparative characteristics, caused by developed materials and composites, allowing investigation of physio-mechanical processes and phenomena based on scientific and technological progress.

This book offers a new approach to the long-standing problem of high-Tc copper-oxide superconductors. It has been demonstrated that starting from a strongly correlated Hamiltonian, even within the mean-field regime, the "competing orders" revealed by experiments can be achieved using numerical calculations. In the introduction, readers will find a brief review of the high-Tc problem and the unique challenges it poses, as well as a comparatively simple numerical approach, the renormalized mean-field theory (RMFT), which provides rich results detailed in the following chapters. With an additional phase picked up by the original Hamiltonian, some behaviors of interactive fermions under an external magnetic field, which have since been experimentally observed using cold atom techniques, are also highlighted.

This thesis addresses the problem of improving the alignment of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in transistor applications, taking a unique approach using iptycenes acting as molecular tweezers in combination with a liquid crystal solvent. As part of a project to test the effectiveness of a multi-step method, the so-called Alignment Relay Technique (ART), this work contributed evidence for the selectivity and stability of ART, as well as providing the first proof-of-concept that ART can be used to create CNT field-effect transistors (FETs). The thesis effectively explains and illustrates the chemical synthesis of the tweezers, the concept and actualization of the technique, the various factors observed to influence deposition and selectivity, along with material fabrication using both photolithography and electron beam lithography. This research advances knowledge of transistors and expands the applications of small organic molecules in the field of materials science. Particular highlights of this thesis include: an extensive review of ART, its advantages, and limitations; development of new material chemistry methods for the optimization of semiconducting CNT selectivity; and a comprehensive exploration of fabrication and characterization of CNTFETs for future applications.

The diminishing size and greater complexity of modern semiconductor integrated circuits poses new challenges in fault detection. Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM) is a physical fault localisation technique used for analysing IC failures. Detailing the PEM technique and its application to semiconductor device analysis, this unique reference:

• Illustrates the application of the PEM technique in various areas of device reliability, in particular hot-carrier, oxide and ESD reliability.
• Presents the principles of design and calibration for a spectroscopic emission microscope system along with coverage of the three main operation modes: frontside, backside and spectroscopic PEM
• Provides an analysis of light emission in semiconductors under hot-carrier and high-field impulse stressing in MOS transistors and photon emission from biased MOS capacitors.

Defects in semiconductors have been studied for many years, in many cases with a view toward controlling their behaviour through various forms of "defect engineering." For example, in the bulk, charging significantly affects the total concentration of defects that are available to mediate phenomena such as solid-state diffusion. Surface defects play an important role in mediating surface mass transport during high temperature processing steps such as epitaxial film deposition, diffusional smoothing in reflow, and nanostructure formation in memory device fabrication. "Charged Defects in Semiconductors" details the current state of knowledge regarding the properties of the ionized defects that can affect the behaviour of advanced transistors, photo-active devices, catalysts, and sensors. Features: group IV, III-V, and oxide semiconductors; intrinsic and extrinsic defects; and, point defects, as well as defect pairs, complexes and clusters.

In this book new experimental investigations of properties of Josephson junctions and systems are explored with the help of recent developments in superconductivity. The theory of the Josephson effect is presented taking into account the influence of multiband and anisotropy effects in new superconducting compounds. Anharmonicity effects in current-phase relation on Josephson junctions dynamics are discussed. Recent studies in analogue and digital superconductivity electronics are presented. Topics of special interest include resistive single flux quantum logic in digital electronics. Application of Josephson junctions in quantum computing as superconducting quantum bits are analyzed. Particular attention is given to understanding chaotic behaviour of Josephson junctions and systems. The book is written for graduate students and researchers in the field of applied superconductivity.

The 2008 Spring Meeting of the Arbeitskreis Festkorperphysik was held in Berlin, Germany, between February 24 and February 29, 2008 in conjunction with the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. The 2008 meeting was the largest physics meeting in Europe and among the largest physics meetings in the world in 2008."

This thesis presents an experimental study of ordering phenomena in rare-earth nickelate-based heterostructures by means of inelastic Raman light scattering and elastic resonant x-ray scattering (RXS). Further, it demonstrates that the amplitude ratio of magnetic moments at neighboring nickel sites can be accurately determined by RXS in combination with a correlated double cluster model, and controlled experimentally through structural pinning of the oxygen positions in the crystal lattice. The two key outcomes of the thesis are: (a) demonstrating full control over the charge/bond and spin order parameters in specifically designed praseodymium nickelate heterostructures and observation of a novel spin density wave phase in absence of the charge/bond order parameter, which confirms theoretical predictions of a spin density wave phase driven by spatial confinement of the conduction electrons; and (b) assessing the thickness-induced crossover between collinear and non-collinear spin structures in neodymium nickelate slabs, which is correctly predicted by drawing on density functional theory.

Epitaxial growth lies at the heart of a wide range of industrial and technological applications. Recent breakthroughs, experimental and theoretical, allow actual atom-by-atom manipulation and an understanding of such processes, opening up a totally new area of unprecedented nanostructuring.

The contributions to Atomistic Aspects of Epitaxial Growth are divided into five main sections, taking the reader from the atomistic details of surface diffusion to the macroscopic description of epitaxial systems. many of the papers contain substantial background material on theoretical and experimental methods, making the book suitable for both graduate students as a supplementary text in a course on epitaxial phenomena, and for professionals in the field.