The present textbook treats the effects of temperature upon weakly disordered hydrogenated amorphous silicon and hydrogenated amorphous germanium, as well as the effect of weak disorder upon more complex systems such as GaAs and Al2Gal-xAs alloy. The effects of disorder-induced band tailing upon deep levels in compound semiconductor alloys are also studied.

The present textbook treats the effects of temperature upon weakly disordered hydrogenated amorphous silicon and hydrogenated amorphous germanium, as well as the effect of weak disorder upon more complex systems such as GaAs and Al2Gal-xAs alloy. The effects of disorder-induced band tailing upon deep levels in compound semiconductor alloys are also studied.

Phononic crystals are artificial periodic structures that can alter efficiently the flow of sound, acoustic waves, or elastic waves. They were introduced about twenty years ago and have gained increasing interest since then, both because of their amazing physical properties and because of their potential applications. The topic of phononic crystals stands as the cross-road of physics (condensed matter physics, wave propagation in inhomogeneous and periodic media) and engineering (acoustics, ultrasonics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering). Phononic crystals cover a wide range of scales, from meter-size periodic structures for sound in air to nanometer-size structures for information processing or thermal phonon control in integrated circuits. Phononic crystals have a definite relation with the topic of photonic crystals in optics. The marriage of phononic and photonic crystals also provides a promising structural basis for enhanced sound and light interaction. As the topic is getting popular, it is nowadays presented and discussed at various international conferences. After the first ten years during which the topic has remained mainly theoretical with a few proof-of-concept demonstrations in the literature, the evolution has been towards applications, instrumentation, and novel designs. The physical explanations for various effects are now well understood and efficient numerical methods and analysis tools have been developed. The book contains a comprehensive set of finite element model (FEM) scripts for solving basic phononic crystal problems. The scripts are short, easy to read, and efficient, allowing the reader to generate for him(her)self band structures for 2D and 3D phononic crystals, to compute Bloch waves, waveguide and cavity modes, and more.

Self-healing is a well-known phenomenon in nature: a broken bone merges after some time and if skin is damaged, the wound will stop bleeding and heals again. This concept can be mimicked in order to create polymeric materials with the ability to regenerate after they have suffered degradation or wear. Already realized applications are used in aerospace engineering, and current research in this fascinating field shows how different self-healing mechanisms proven successful by nature can be adapted to produce even more versatile materials. The book combines the knowledge of an international panel of experts in the field and provides the reader with chemical and physical concepts for self-healing polymers, including aspects of biomimetic processes of healing in nature. It shows how to design self-healing polymers and explains the dynamics in these systems. Different self-healing concepts such as encapsulated systems and supramolecular systems are detailed. Chapters on analysis and friction detection in self-healing polymers and on applications round off the book.

Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019