Named a Top Five Book of 2011 by Physics Today, USA.'... the editors deserve praise for the selection of topics and for enlisting a distinguished set of authors. BCS: 50 Years is a successful attempt to capture the history of the development of superconductivity theory and its continuing impact. Any person curious about superconductivity will find something in this book to enjoy.'Physics TodayThe BCS theory of superconductivity developed in 1957 by Bardeen, Cooper and Schri...

This book provides a comprehensive introduction to the physics of the photovoltaic cell. It is suitable for undergraduates, graduate students, and researchers new to the field. It covers: basic physics of semiconductors in photovoltaic devices; physical models of solar cell operation; characteristics and design of common types of solar cell; and approaches to increasing solar cell efficiency. The text explains the terms and concepts of solar cell device physics and shows the reader how to ...

This book reviews up-to-date ideas of how the luminescence radiation in semiconductors originates and how to analyze it experimentally. The book fills a gap between general textbooks on optical properties of solids and specialized monographs on luminescence. It is unique in its coherent treatment of the phenomenon of luminescence from the very introductory definitions, from light emission in bulk crystalline and amorphous materials to the advanced chapters that deal with semiconductor nano...

This book contains advanced subjects in solid state physics with emphasis on the theoretical exposition of various physical phenomena in solids using quantum theory, hence entitled “A modern course in the quantum theory of solids”. The use of the adjective “modern” in the title is to reflect the fact that some of the new developments in condensed matter physics have been included in the book. The new developments contained in the book are mainly in experimental methods (inelastic neutron s...

This book will address the application of gas phase thin film methods, including techniques such as evaporation, sputtering, CVD, and ALD to the synthesis of materials on nanostructured and high aspect-ratio high surface area materials. We have chosen to introduce these topics and the different application fields from a chronological perspective: we start with the early concepts of step coverage and later conformality in semiconductor manufacturing, and how later on the range of applicatio...

Originated from studies on steam engines, thermodynamics is formulated traditi- ally for homogeneous materials. Applying to condensed matters however, laws of thermodynamics have to be evaluated with respect to the structural detail. Foll- ing after Kirkwood’s chemical thermodynamics, the author’s attempt is to discuss lattice dynamics in crystalline states in light of the traditional laws. It is noted that lattice symmetry remains as implicit in crystalline states if assumed as homo- neou...

Density functional theory (DFT) has become the standard workhorse for quantum mechanical simulations as it offers a good compromise between accuracy and computational cost.However, there are many important systems for which DFT performs very poorly, most notably strongly-correlated materials, resulting in a significant recent growth in interest in 'beyond DFT' methods. The widely used DFT+U technique, in particular, involves the addition of explicit Coulomb repulsion terms to reprod...

Topological Insulators (TIs) are insulators in the bulk, but have exotic metallic states at their surfaces. The topology, associated with the electronic wavefunctions of these systems, changes when passing from the bulk to the surface. This work studies, by means of infrared spectroscopy, the low energy optical conductivity of Bismuth based TIs in order to identify the extrinsic charge contribution of the bulk and to separate it from the intrinsic contribution of the surface state carriers...

This new edition presents a unified description of these insulators from one to three dimensions based on the modified Dirac equation. It derives a series of solutions of the bound states near the boundary, and describes the current status of these solutions. Readers are introduced to topological invariants and their applications to a variety of systems from one-dimensional polyacetylene, to two-dimensional quantum spin Hall effect and p-wave superconductors, three-dimensional topological ...

This book presents the basics and applications of superconducting magnets. It explains the phenomenon of superconductivity, theories of superconductivity, type II superconductors and high-temperature cuprate superconductors. The main focus of the book is on the application to superconducting magnets to accelerators and fusion reactors and other applications of superconducting magnets. The thermal and electromagnetic stability criteria of the conductors and the present status of the fabrica...

This thesis presents various characteristics of 122-type iron pnictide (FeSC) such as crystal and electronic structure, carrier-doping effect, and impurity-scattering effect, using transport, magnetization, specific heat, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and optical spectral measurements. Most notably the measurement on the magnetic fluctuation in the material successfully explains already known unusual electronic properties, i.e., superconducting gap symmetry, anisotropy of in-plane resi...

This book emphasizes the importance of the fascinating atomistic insights into the defects and the impurities as well as the dynamic behaviors in silicon materials, which have become more directly accessible over the past 20 years. Such progress has been made possible by newly developed experimental methods, first principle theories, and computer simulation techniques.The book is aimed at young researchers, scientists, and technicians in related industries. The main purposes are to...