The evolution of Si-based optoelectronics has been extremely fast in the last few years and it is predicted that this growth will still continue in the near future. The aim of the volume is to present different Si-based luminescing materials as porous silicon, rare-earth doped silicon, Si nanocrystals, silicides, Si-based multilayers and silicon-germanium alloy or superlattice structures. The different devices needed for an all-Si-based optoelectronics are treated, ranging from light sources to waveguides, from amplifiers and modulators to detectors. Both the very basic treatments as well as applications to real prototype devices and integration in an optical integrated circuit are presented. Several issues are highlighted: the problem of electrical transport in low-dimensional Si systems, the possibility of gain in Si-based systems, the low modulation speed of Si-based LEDs. The book gives a fascinating picture of the state-of-the-art in Si microphotonics and a perspective on what one can expect in the near future.

A fascinating insight into the state-of-the-art in silicon microphotonics and on what we can expect in the near future. The book presents an overview of the current understanding of getting light from silicon. It concentrates mainly on low dimensional silicon structures, like quantum dots, wires and wells, but covers also alternative approaches like porous silicon and the doping of silicon with rare-earths. The emphasis is on the experimental and theoretical achievements concerning the optoelectronic properties of confined silicon structures obtained during recent years. Silicon based photonic crystals are in particular considered. An in depth discussion of the route towards a silicon laser is presented.

Since their discovery, low dimensional materials have never stopped to intrigue scientists, whether they are physicists, chemists, or biochemists. Investigations of their nature and functions have always been and still are numerous and as soon as a solution is found for a given question, another one is raised. The coupling of nano-materials with photonics, i. e. nano-photonics, has produced a boiling pot of idea, problems, discovery and applications. This statement is abundantly illustrated in the present book. The interest in nano-optoelectronic materials and systems is very widespread, what gives a really international and multicultural flavour to nano-optoelectronic meetings. One of them was organized by our-self in May 2000 in Kiev as a NATO Advanced Research Workshop and EC-Spring School. The arrival of the new millennium provides an obvious transition point at which many aspects of nano-science and nano-engineering of nano photonic systems can be assessed with respect to the research progresses made in the pre ceding decades and to the challenges that lie ahead in the coming decades. This book was planed to mark this with the objective of presenting a collection of papers from experts, which provide broad perspectives on the state-of-the-art in the various disciplines of nano science and nano-engineering and on the directions for future research.

High energy physics (HEP) has a crucial role in the context of fundamental physics. HEP experiments make use of a massive array of sophisticated detectors to analyze the particles produced in high-energy scattering events. This book contains the papers from the workshop 'Radiation and Particle Detectors', organized by the International School of Physics, and held in Varenna in July 2009. Its subject is the use of detectors for research in fundamental physics, astro-particle physics and applied physics. Subjects covered include the measurement of: the position and length of ionization trails, t.

With the exception of positron emission tomography (PET), the field of low energy positron science produces relatively few academic articles each year compared to more accessible fields. Though much has been achieved since the publication of two related volumes earlier in this series: Positron Solid State Physics (1981) and Positron Spectroscopy of Solids (1993), only the first steps have been made towards 'physics with many positrons': physical situations where the interactions of positrons with positrons can be observed. This 2009 "Enrico Fermi School" aims to stimulate the field o.

Impressive progress has been made in the field of laser-plasma acceleration in the last decade, with outstanding achievements from both experimental and theoretical viewpoints. Closely exploiting the development of ultra-intense, ultrashort pulse lasers, laser-plasma acceleration has developed rapidly, achieving accelerating gradients of the order of tens of GeV/m, and making the prospect of miniature accelerators a more realistic possibility. This book presents the lectures delivered at the Enrico Fermi International School of Physics and summer school: "Laser-Plasma Acceleration" , held in Varenna, Italy, in June 2011. The school provided an opportunity for young scientists to experience the best from the worlds of laser-plasma and accelerator physics, with intensive training and hands-on opportunities related to key aspects of laser-plasma acceleration. Subjects covered include: the secrets of lasers; the power of numerical simulations; beam dynamics; and the elusive world of laboratory plasmas. The objective of the school was to establish a common knowledge base for the future laser-plasma accelerator community. These published proceedings aim to provide a wider community with a reference covering a wide range of topics, knowledge of which will be necessary to future research on laser-plasma acceleration. The book also provides references to selected existing literature for further reading.

This book contains chapters based on 9 of the lectures delivered at the Enrico Fermi School of Physics "Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics", held from 25 of July to 5 August 2011. The event was organized by the Italian Physical Society (SIF) jointly with the International School of Astro-particle Physics (ISAPP), a network whose aim is to build up an astro-particle community of both astrophysicists and particle physicists. Included are chapters on Neutrino oscillation physics (B. Kayser); Double-beta decay (E. Fiorini); Light neutrinos in cosmology (S. Pastor); Neutrinos and the stars (G.G. Raffelt); High energy neutrinos and cosmic rays (G. Sigl); Methods and problems in low-energy neutrino experiments (G. Ranucci); Methods and problems in neutrino observatories (M. Ribordy); New technologies in neutrino physics (L. Oberauer); and Perspectives of underground physics (A. Bettini). These are a followed by a section on the results presented in the form of posters by the Ph.D. students attending the school. The book will be of interest not only to participants of the school, but also to other Ph.D. students and young physicists.

This book is a snapshot of the vision shared by outstanding scientists on the key theoretical and experimental issues in Mesoscopic Physics. Quantum properties of electrons in solid state devices and transport in semiconducting and superconducting low-dimensional systems, are discussed, as well as the basis of quantum computing (entanglement, noise decoherence and read-out). Each chapter collects the material presented at a Varenna School course of last year, by leading experts in the field. The reader gets a flavour of how theorists and experimentalists are paving the way to the physical realization of solid state qubits, the basic units of the new logic and memory elements for quantum processing. He will be surprised in finding that mesoscopic solid state devices, which were invented only yesterday (think of the Single Electron Transistor, or the Cooper Pair Box) are currently used as charge-sensing applications in the equipment of frontier research laboratories. These devices contribute as probing systems to produce evidence on still unsettled questions in topics like the metal-insulator transition in disordered two dimensional systems, quantum Hall conductance in heterostructur"

The three-dimensional nucleon structure is central to many theoretical and experimental activities, and research in this field has seen many advances in the last two decades, addressing fundamental questions such as the orbital motion of quarks and gluons inside the nucleons, their spatial distribution, and the correlation between spin and intrinsic motion. A real three-dimensional imaging of the nucleon as a composite object, both in momentum and coordinate space, is slowly emerging.This book presents lectures and seminars from the Enrico Fermi School Three-Dimensional Partonic Structure of the Nucleon, held in Varenna,

The rapid progress of the research field of quantum chaos and its applications called for a book that keeps students abreast of the new developments and at the same time provides a solid basis in subjects which form the canon of the field. This book discusses the following topics: Spectral statistics and their semiclassical interpretation in terms of the Gutzwiller trace formula, Quantum chaos and its applications in mesoscopic physics, Spectral statistics and conductance fluctuations and Quantum chaos in systems with many degrees of freedom. The book connects and continues past and present achievements and prepares the ground for a future full of intriguing and important developments.