This book provides a comprehensive review of the subject of polaron and a thorough account of the sophisticated theories of the polaron. It explains the concept of the polaron physics in as simple a manner as possible and presents the theoretical techniques and mathematical derivations in great detail. Anybody who follows this book will develop a solid command over the subject both conceptually and technically and will be in a position to contribute to this field.

The properties of self-localized carriers on a lattice are described at a fairly basic level with an emphasis on modern developments in the theory of strong-coupling superconductivity. Large and small polarons and bipolarons provide a number of new physical phenomena both in the normal and superconducting states. The physics of high temperature superconductors is described and explained.

Polyacetylence, (CH)x is the simplest conjugated polymer. Prestine polyacetylence is a good insulator, whereas its highly doped version exhibits metal-like electrical conductivity. This book gives a detailed introduction to this rapidly-developing field is given along with a collection of original papers. The main purpose is to help chemists and physicists grasp the main ideas and most important facts; an expert may also find it useful as a reference volume.

This book reviews recent developments in the field of polarons, starting with the basics and covering a number of active directions of research. It integrates theory and experimental results.

A distinctive introduction to the principles governing polaron science for experimental and theoretical graduate students and researchers.

This book first introduces a single polaron and describes recent achievements in analytical and numerical studies of polaron properties in different e-ph models. It then describes multi-polaron physics as well as many key physical properties of high-temperature superconductors, colossal magnetoresistance oxides, conducting polymers and molecular nanowires, which were understood with polarons and bipolarons.

This book deals with electrical, electrochemical, structural, magnetic, optical and lattice dynamical properties of conjugated polymers such as polyaniline, polyacetylene, polydiacetylene, polypyrrole, polyparaphenylene and polythiophene. Several new conjugated systems and model polyenes are also considered. Since the previous winter school on this topic held in 1985, the focus of interest in the field has broadened and now covers not only conductivity and relaxation phenomena of polyacetylene but also nonlinear optical properties, highly oriented and single crystal polymers, and electrochemical and opto-electrochemical properties of special materials. Particular attention is paid in this volume to the possible applications of these systems, for example, in electrochemical cells as electrode materials and in nonlinear optics devices, which now appear to be much more realistic than previously. The detailed contributions are complemented by short reviews of thin film polymers (Langmuir-Blodgett layers), filled polymers, ferromagnetic polymers, superconducting low-dimensional systems (including organic superconductors and high-temperature superconductors) and the application of fractal models to polymers.

This book reviews the current understanding of electronic, optical and magnetic properties of conjugated polymers in both the semiconducting and metallic states. It introduces in particular novel phenomena and concepts in these quasi one-dimensional materials that differ from the well-established concepts valid for crystalline semiconductors. After a brief introductory chapter, the second chapter presents basic theore tical concepts and treats in detail the various models for n-conjugated polymers and the computational methods required to derive observable quantities. Specific spatially localized structures, often referred to as solitons, polarons and bipolarons, result naturally from the interaction between n-electrons and lattice displacements. For a semi-quantitative understanding of the various measure ments, electron-electron interactions have to be incorporated in the models; this in turn makes the calculations rather complicated. The third chapter is devoted to the electrical properties of these materials. The high metallic conductivity achieved by doping gave rise to the expression conducting polymers, which is often used for such materials even when they are in their semiconducting or insulating state. Although conductivity is one of the most important features, the reader will learn how difficult it is to draw definite conclusions about the nature of the charge carriers and the microscopic transport mechanism solely from electrical measurements. Optical properties are discussed in the fourth chapter.