This book offers an extensive introduction to the extremely rich and intriguing field of spin-related phenomena in semiconductors. In this second edition, all chapters have been updated to include the latest experimental and theoretical research. Furthermore, it covers the entire field: bulk semiconductors, two-dimensional semiconductor structures, quantum dots, optical and electric effects, spin-related effects, electron-nuclei spin interactions, Spin Hall effect, spin torques, etc. Thanks to its self-contained style, the book is ideally suited for graduate students and researchers new to the field.

The purpose of this collective book is to present a non-exhaustive survey of sp- related phenomena in semiconductors with a focus on recent research. In some sense it may be regarded as an updated version of theOpticalOrientation book, which was entirely devoted to spin physics in bulk semiconductors. During the 24 years that have elapsed, we have witnessed, on the one hand, an extraordinary development in the wonderful semiconductor physics in two dim- sions with the accompanying revolutionary applications. On the other hand, during the last maybe 15 years there was a strong revival in the interest in spin phen- ena, in particular in low-dimensional semiconductor structures. While in the 1970s and 1980s the entire world population of researchers in the ?eld never exceeded 20 persons, now it can be counted by the hundreds and the number of publications by the thousands. This explosive growth is stimulated, to a large extent, by the hopes that the electron and/or nuclear spins in a semiconductor will help to accomplish the dream of factorizing large numbers by quantum computing and eventually to develop a new spin-based electronics, or "spintronics". Whether any of this will happen or not, still remains to be seen. Anyway, these ideas have resulted in a large body of interesting and exciting research, which is a good thing by itself. The ?eld of spin physics in semiconductors is extremely rich and interesting with many spectacular effects in optics and transport.

This book addresses a broad community of physicists, engineers, computer scientists and industry professionals, as well as the general public, who are aware of the unprecedented media hype surrounding the supposedly imminent new era of quantum computing. The central argument of this book is that the feasibility of quantum computing in the physical world is extremely doubtful. The hypothetical quantum computer is not simply a quantum variant of the conventional digital computer, but rather a quantum extension of a classical analog computer operating with continuous parameters. In order to have a useful machine, the number of continuous parameters to control would have to be of such an astronomically large magnitude as to render the endeavor virtually infeasible. This viewpoint is based on the author's expert understanding of the gargantuan challenges that would have to be overcome to ever make quantum computing a reality. Knowledge of secondary-school-level physics and math will be sufficient for understanding most of the text.