This volume contains the proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter held August 3-7, 1992, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. The preceding conferences were held at: St. Maxime and Paris (France) 1972, Nottingham (UK) 1975, Providence (USA) 1979, Stuttgart (Germany) 1983, Urbana (USA) 1986, and Heidelberg (Germany) 1989. The Heidelberg conference was held jointly with the Third International Con ference on Phonon Physics. The next conference, to be held in August, 1995, in Sapporo, Japan, and hosted by Professor T. Nakayama and his colleagues, will also be such a joint conference. This conference was attended by 227 scientists from 27 countries, and covered all aspects of phonon scattering in condensed matter, ranging from the more traditional topics of thermal conductivity, Kapitza resistance, and ballistic phonon propagation to the recently added topics, such as electron-phonon interaction in high-T c superconductors, the use of phonons in particle detection, and phonons in confined geometries. The 207 papers arranged in 11 chapters in this volume are a cross section of the present activities in the quite obviously vibrant field of phonons and their interactions.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter held from August 22-26, 1983 at the University of Stuttgart. The preceding conferences were organized at Saint Maxime and Paris in 1972, at the University of Nottingham in 1975, and at the Brown University Providence/Rhode Island in 1979. The Stuttgart conference, like the preceding conferences, was mainly con cerned with "propagating" high-frequency acoustic phonons, mechanical waves and heat up to the lattice limiting frequency. Lattice dynamics, optical pho nons, phase transitions, etc., were included as far as they are involved in acoustical phonon scattering, propagation and generation. In this context the conference covered all aspects of acoustical phonon physics, especially generation of phonons, propagation, scattering and detection. Since acoustic phonons participate in most energy-transfer processes in solids and liquids, the field of interest is growing rapidly. Therefore exciting new developments of acoustic phonon physics could be presented at the Stuttgart conference as well as important progress with respect to well-known problems, as, for example, the Kapitza resistance. Two hundred and six scientists from 21 countries attended the conference. Thirteen invited papers and 105 contributed papers, with 34 as posters, were presented. The discussions are included in this volume. A discussion session on large wave vector phonons was organized and chaired by V. Narayanamurti. A discussion session on phonon scattering at interfaces was organized and chaired by R.O. Pohl.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter held August 3-7, 1992, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. The preceding conferences were held at: St. Maxime and Paris (France) 1972, Nottingham (UK) 1975, Providence (USA) 1979, Stuttgart (Germany) 1983, Urbana (USA) 1986, and Heidelberg (Germany) 1989. The Heidelberg conference was held jointly with the Third International Con ference on Phonon Physics. The next conference, to be held in August, 1995, in Sapporo, Japan, and hosted by Professor T. Nakayama and his colleagues, will also be such a joint conference. This conference was attended by 227 scientists from 27 countries, and covered all aspects of phonon scattering in condensed matter, ranging from the more traditional topics of thermal conductivity, Kapitza resistance, and ballistic phonon propagation to the recently added topics, such as electron-phonon interaction in high-T c superconductors, the use of phonons in particle detection, and phonons in confined geometries. The 207 papers arranged in 11 chapters in this volume are a cross section of the present activities in the quite obviously vibrant field of phonons and their interactions.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Fifth International Confer ence on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter held June 2-6, 1986 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The preceding confer ences were held at St. Maxime and Paris in 1972, at the University of Nottingham in 1975, at Brown University in 1979, and at the University of Stuttgart in 1983. The Illinois conference dealt with both traditional and newly developing topics in the area of phonon scattering. Papers were presented on phonon scattering in glassy and crystalline dielectrics, semi conductors, metals (both normal and superconducting), and in the areas of phonon imaging, large wave vector phonons, optical techniques and new experimental methods. The 12 invited papers and 100 contributed papers were presented by the 125 scientists from 14 countries. A citation was presented to Professor Paul Klemens of the University of Connecticut for his pioneering contributions to the physics of phonon scattering in solids. Paul Gustav Klemens Born - Vienna (1925) B. Sc. - Sydney (1946) D. Phil. - Oxford (1950) National Standards Lab. , Sydney (1950-1959) Westinghouse Research Labs. , Pittsburgh (1964-1969) Univ. of Connecticut (1967- ) Fellow: American Physical Society British Institute of Physics & Physical Society A long career dedicated to the understanding of thermal transport. Few papers are published on phonon thermal transport that do not reference his work.

This book reports new results in condensed matter physics for which topological methods and ideas are important. It considers, on the one hand, recently discovered systems such as carbon nanocrystals and, on the other hand, new topological methods used to describe more traditional systems such as the Fermi surfaces of normal metals, liquid crystals and quasicrystals. The authors of the book are renowned specialists in their fields and present the results of ongoing research, some of it obtained only very recently and not yet published in monograph form.

Concisely and clearly written by two foremost scientists, this book provides a self-contained introduction to the basic concepts of fractals and demonstrates their use in a range of topics. The authors’ unified description of different dynamic problems makes the book extremely accessible.

This book is especially addressed to young researchers in theoretical physics with a basic background in Field Theory and Condensed Matter Physics. The topics were chosen so as to offer the largest possible overlap between the two expertises, selecting a few key problems in Condensed Matter Theory which have been recently revisited within a field-theoretic approach. The presentation of the material is aimed not only at providing the reader with an overview of this exciting frontier area of modern theoretical physics, but also at elucidating most of the tools needed for a technical comprehen sion of the many papers appearing in current issues of physics journals and, hopefully, to enable the reader to tackle research problems in this area of physics. This makes the material a live creature: while not pretending it to be exhaustive, it is tutorial enough to be useful to young researchers as a starting point in anyone of the topics covered in the book.

Recent improvements in the performance of light sources, i.e. reduction in pulse length and increases in wavelength range and power levels, have led to ultrafast technology becoming a basic tool in a wide variety of scientific fields. This book describes the remarkable technological improvements and results of new applications in the natural sciences and various engineering fields.

This is the first monograph devoted to investigation of the most complex physical processes of soft systems, including a wide class of solutions. It blends modern theoretical understanding and experimental results, proposing new methods and models for the description of several soft systems.

The study of electrons and holes confined to two, one and even zero dimensions has uncovered a rich variety of new physics and applications. This book describes the interaction between these confined carriers and the optic and acoustic phonons within and around the confined regions. Phonons provide the principal channel of energy transfer between the carriers and their surroundings and also the main restriction to their room temperature mobility. But they have many other roles; they provide, for example, an essential feature of the operation of the quantum cascade laser. Since their momenta at relevant energies are well matched to those of electrons, they can also be used to probe electronic properties such as the confinement width of 2D electron gases and the dispersion curve of quasiparticles in the fractional quantum Hall effect. The book describes both the physics of the electron-phonon interaction in the different confined systems and the experimental and theoretical techniques that have been used in its investigation. The experimental methods include optical and transport techniques as well as techniques in which phonons are used as the experimental probe. The aim of the book is to provide an up to date review of the physics and its significance in device performance. It is also written to be explanatory and accessible to graduate students and others new to the field.