Multinary compounds are now used in a wide range of devices, including photovoltaic solar cells, light emitters and detectors, and piezoelectric actuators. Ternary and Multinary Compounds provides an interdisciplinary forum for scientists and engineers working on fundamental and applied aspects of these materials. The volume focuses on optoelectronic properties, electronic band structure, charge carrier transport, optical and magnetic properties, and superconductivity. It includes chapters on the research and development of new techniques and novel materials, such as laser ablation deposition and ferroelectrics.

In the first comprehensive treatment of these technologically important materials, the authors provide theories linking the properties of semiconductor alloys to their constituent compounds. Topics include crystal structures, bonding, elastic properties, phase diagrams, band structures, transport, ab-initio theories, and semi-empirical theories. Each chapter includes extensive tables and figures as well as problem sets.

Published in association with the International Solar Energy Society, this four-volume set focusses on the latest research and development initiatives of experts involved in one of the fundamental issues facing society today: the global energy problem.

Addressing the growing demand for larger capacity in information technology, VLSI Micro- and Nanophotonics: Science, Technology, and Applications explores issues of science and technology of micro/nano-scale photonics and integration for broad-scale and chip-scale Very Large Scale Integration photonics. This book is a game-changer in the sense that it is quite possibly the first to focus on "VLSI Photonics". Very little effort has been made to develop integration technologies for micro/nanoscale photonic devices and applications, so this reference is an important and necessary early-stage perspective on this field. New demand for VLSI photonics brings into play various technological and scientific issues, as well as evolutionary and revolutionary challenges—all of which are discussed in this book. These include topics such as miniaturization, interconnection, and integration of photonic devices at micron, submicron, and nanometer scales. With its "disruptive creativity" and unparalleled coverage of the photonics revolution in information technology, this book should greatly impact the future of micro/nano-photonics and IT as a whole. It offers a comprehensive overview of the science and engineering of micro/nanophotonics and photonic integration. Many books on micro/nanophotonics focus on understanding the properties of individual devices and their related characteristics. However, this book offers a full perspective from the point of view of integration, covering all aspects of benefits and advantages of VLSI-scale photonic integration—the key technical concept in developing a platform to make individual devices and components useful and practical for various applications.

Chalcopyrites, in particular those with a wide band gap, are fascinating materials in terms of their technological potential in the next generation of thin-film solar cells and in terms of their basic material properties. They exhibit uniquely low defect formation energies, leading to unusual doping and phase behavior and to extremely benign grain boundaries. This book collects articles on a number of those basic material properties of wide-gap chalcopyrites, comparing them to their low-gap cousins. They explore the doping of the materials, the electronic structure and the transport through interfaces and grain boundaries, the formation of the electric field in a solar cell, the mechanisms and suppression of recombination, the role of inhomogeneities, and the technological role of wide-gap chalcopyrites.

In Volume 6 of the Advances in Solar Energy we have specifically targeted for a review the rich experience of the Power Utilities. Their hands-on experience in a large variety of means to employ solar energy conversion and to evaluate the technical and economical feasibilities is of great importance to their future use. In designing the lay-out for this volume, we wanted to collect all relevant information, including success and failures and wanted to emphasize the lessons learned from each type of experiment. The publication of such a review now has the advantage of a settled experience in the first phase of solar involvement of the utility industry with a large amount of data analyzed. We are confident that this information will be of great value to direct the future development of the solar energy mix within this industry. We have added to this set of reviews three articles which deal with the most promising high-technology part of solar energy conversion using exclusively solid state devices: solar cells. The development over the last two decades from barely 10% to now in excess of 30% conversion efficiency is breathtaking. In addition, the feasibility of economic midrange efficient thin-film technology holds the promise of opening large sc ale markets in the near future. This field will enter head-on competition for large power generation with more conventional technology.

This proceedings volume contains review articles on solid-state spectroscopies by leading researchers in Japan and Taiwan. Topics include excitons and biexcitons, size effects in quantum dots and microcrystals, nonlinear optical properties, optical spectra of disordered systems, electronic and optical properties of metal-dielectric and semiconductor superlattices, photoemission, Raman spectroscopy, and photoreflectance studies on solids.