The Symposium on 'Nitrides and related wide band gap materials' at the 1998 Spring Meeting of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) in Strasbourg, France, was the third Symposium of its kind at an E-MRS meeting. Beginning in 1996, these Symposia enjoyed a steadily increasing popularity among European and international nitride researchers.
Contributions covered the areas of hetero-epitaxy, bulk growth, structural, electrical and optical characterisation and device fabrication. Researchers from about 20 different countries presented their work at this symposium. Naturally, most papers were from within Europe (Germany, France, Russia and the United Kingdom) but there was also a remarkable number of contributions from overseas (USA, Japan and Korea.)
For about 5 years now, semiconducting group-III nitrides have attracted an enormous level of research activity all over the world. Essentially this was triggered by the breakthroughs achieved by Shuji Nakamura and his group in Japan, who succeeded in making highly efficient blue, green and yellow light emitting diodes as well as violet laser diodes based on A1GaInN. Since then, intensive research related to material growth, device development, as well as to the fundamental properties of these materials is being carried out.
The outstanding contribution of Shuji Nakamura to this field was underlined by his plenary lecture during this E-MRS meeting. He presented his most recent progress towards amber LED's and long-lived violet laser diodes.

An international perspective on recent research, Compound Semiconductors 2001 provides an overview of important developments in III-V compound semiconductors, such as GaAs, InP, and GaN; II-VI compounds, such as ZnSe and CdTe; and IV-IV compounds, such as SiC and SiGe. The book contains 139 papers arranged in chapters on electronic devices, optical devices, magnetic materials, novel systems, quantum transport, optical characterization, quantum nanostructures, and material growth and characterization. The content encompasses the development of optical and electronic devices based on nitride semiconductors as well as the steady advances in traditional topics like III-V-based electronic and optical devices, growth and processing, and characterization. The book also includes novel research trends in quantum structures, such as quantum wires and dots, and spintronics, which are very promising for future developments in nanotechnology.
As the primary forum for research into these materials and their device applications, this resource is an essential reference for researchers working on compound semiconductors in semiconductor physics, device physics, materials science, chemistry, and electronic and electrical engineering.