World experts in amorphous carbon have been drawn together to produce this comprehensive commentary on the current state and future prospects of amorphous carbon, a highly functional material. Amorphous carbon has a wide range of properties that are primarily controlled by the different bond hybridisations possible in such materials. This allows for the growth of an extensive range of thin films that can be tailored for specific applications. Films can range from those with high transparency and which are hard and diamond-like, through to those which are opaque, soft and graphitic-like. Application areas including field emission cathodes, MEMs, electronic devices, medical and optical coatings are now close to market.

Amorphous, hydrogenated carbon (AHC) films can be deposited on various substrates using several techniques, e.g. plasma deposition and ion beam deposition. The resulting films can be hard, wear resistant and transparent.

The interdisciplinary field of Astrobiology constitutes a joint arena where provocative discoveries are coalescing concerning, e.g. the prevalence of exoplanets, the diversity and hardiness of life, and its increasingly likely chances for its emergence. Biologists, astrophysicists, biochemists, geoscientists and space scientists share this exciting mission of revealing the origin and commonality of life in the Universe. The members of the different disciplines are used to their own terminology and technical language. In the interdisciplinary environment many terms either have redundant meanings or are completely unfamiliar to members of other disciplines. The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology serves as the key to a common understanding. Each new or experienced researcher and graduate student in adjacent fields of astrobiology will appreciate this reference work in the quest to understand the big picture. The carefully selected group of active researchers contributing to this work and the expert field editors intend for their contributions, from an internationally comprehensive perspective, to accelerate the interdisciplinary advance of astrobiology.

Providing fundamental knowledge necessary to understand graphene's atomic structure, band-structure, unique properties and an overview of groundbreaking current and emergent applications, this new handbook is essential reading for materials scientists, chemists and physicists.Since the 2010 physics Nobel Prize awarded to Geim and Novosolev for their groundbreaking work isolating graphene from bulk graphite, there has been a huge surge in interest in the area. This has led to a large number of news books on graphene. However, for such a vast inflow of new entrants, the current literature is surprisingly slight, focusing exclusively on current research or books on previous "hot topic" allotropes of carbon.This book covers fundamental groundwork of the structure, property, characterization methods and applications of graphene, along with providing the necessary knowledge of graphene's atomic structure, how it relates to its band-structure and how this in turn leads to the amazing properties of graphene. And so it provides new graduate students and post-docs with a resource that equips them with the knowledge to undertake their research. - Discusses graphene's fundamental structure and properties, acting as a time-saving handbook for validated research - Demonstrates 100+ high-quality graphical representations, providing the reader with clear images to convey complex situations - Reviews characterization techniques relevant to grapheme, equipping the reader with experimental knowledge relevant for practical use rather than just theoretical understanding

Until recently, the element carbon was believed to exhibit only two main allotropic forms, diamond and graphite. Research in the US and Europe has now confirmed the existence of a third previously unknown form - buckminsterfullerene (C60) and its relatives, the fullerenes (C24, C28, C32, C70 etc). The story of fullerene chemistry, physics and materials science began in 1985, almost twenty years after the existence of a spherical carbon cluster was first considered. In September 1985 a joint Sussex/Rice Universities team including Kroto, Heath, O'Brien, Curl and Smalley used a powerful mass spectrometric technique to identify the C+60 species, and proposed a spherical structure and the name buckminsterfullerene. It was not, however, until Krätschmer and Huffman reported the isolation of crystals of C60 in 1990 that the closed cage structure of C60 could be confirmed. The Fullerenes documents the work leading up to 1990 and more recent developments in the field of fullerene research and will serve as an indispensible reference tool for all workers in this area.

Amorphous semiconductors are subtances in the amorphous solid state that have the properties of a semiconductor and which are either covalent or tetrahedrally bonded amorphous semiconductors or chelcogenide glasses. Developed from both a theoretical and experimental viewpoint Deals with, amongst others, preparation techniques, structural, optical and electronic properties, and light induced phenomena Explores different types of amorphous semiconductors including amorphous silicon, amorphous semiconducting oxides and chalcogenide glasses Applications include solar cells, thin film transistors, sensors, optical memory devices and flat screen devices including televisions

This book covers all aspects of physical vapor deposition (PVD) process technology from the characterizing and preparing the substrate material, through deposition processing and film characterization, to post-deposition processing. The emphasis of the book is on the aspects of the process flow that are critical to economical deposition of films that can meet the required performance specifications. The book covers subjects seldom treated in the literature: substrate characterization, adhesion, cleaning and the processing. The book also covers the widely discussed subjects of vacuum technology and the fundamentals of individual deposition processes. However, the author uniquely relates these topics to the practical issues that arise in PVD processing, such as contamination control and film growth effects, which are also rarely discussed in the literature. In bringing these subjects together in one book, the reader can understand the interrelationship between various aspects of the film deposition processing and the resulting film properties. The author draws upon his long experience with developing PVD processes and troubleshooting the processes in the manufacturing environment, to provide useful hints for not only avoiding problems, but also for solving problems when they arise. He uses actual experiences, called ""war stories"", to emphasize certain points. Special formatting of the text allows a reader who is already knowledgeable in the subject to scan through a section and find discussions that are of particular interest. The author has tried to make the subject index as useful as possible so that the reader can rapidly go to sections of particular interest. Extensive references allow the reader to pursue subjects in greater detail if desired. The book is intended to be both an introduction for those who are new to the field and a valuable resource to those already in the field. The discussion of transferring technology between R&D and manufacturing provided in Appendix 1, will be of special interest to the manager or engineer responsible for moving a PVD product and process from R&D into production. Appendix 2 has an extensive listing of periodical publications and professional societies that relate to PVD processing. The extensive Glossary of Terms and Acronyms provided in Appendix 3 will be of particular use to students and to those not fully conversant with the terminology of PVD processing or with the English language.