The effect of reduced dimensionality, inherent at the crystallographic level, on the electronic properties of low dimensional materials can be dramatic, leading to structural and electronic instabilities—including supercond- tivity at high temperatures, charge density waves, and localisation—which continue to attract widespread interest. The layered transition metal dichalcogenides have engaged attention for many years, partly arising from the charge density wave effects which some show and the controlled way in which their properties can be modified by intercalation, while the development of epitaxial growth techniques has opened up promising areas based on dichalcogenide heterostructures and quantum wells. The discovery of high-temperature superconducting oxides, and the realisation that polymeric materials too can be exploited in a controlled way for various opto-electronic applications, have further sti- lated interest in the effects of structural dimensionality. It seems timely therefore to draw together some strands of recent research involving a range of disparate materials which share some common char- teristics of low dimensionality. This resulting volume is aimed at researchers with specialist interests in the particular materials discussed but who may also wish to examine the related phenomena observed in different systems, and at a more general solid state audience with broad interests in electronic properties and low dimensional phenomena. Space limitations have required us to be selective as regards particular materials, though we have managed to include those as dissimilar as polymeric semiconductors, superconducting oxides, bronzes and layered chalcogenides.

Recent advances in electrochemistry and materials science have opened the way to the evolution of entirely new types of energy storage systems: rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, electrochroms, hydrogen containers, etc., all of which have greatly improved electrical performance and other desirable characteristics. This book encompasses all the disciplines linked in the progress from fundamentals to applications, from description and modelling of different materials to technological use, from general diagnostics to methods related to technological control and operation of intercalation compounds. Designing devices with higher specific energy and power will require a more profound understanding of material properties and performance. This book covers the status of materials and advanced activities based on the development of new substances for energy storage.

Defects in Advanced Electronic Materials and Novel Low Dimensional Structures provides a comprehensive review on the recent progress in solving defect issues and deliberate defect engineering in novel material systems. It begins with an overview of point defects in ZnO and group-III nitrides, including irradiation-induced defects, and then look at defects in one and two-dimensional materials, including carbon nanotubes and graphene. Next, it examines the ways that defects can expand the potential applications of semiconductors, such as energy upconversion and quantum processing. The book concludes with a look at the latest advances in theory. While defect physics is extensively reviewed for conventional bulk semiconductors, the same is far from being true for novel material systems, such as low-dimensional 1D and 0D nanostructures and 2D monolayers. This book fills that necessary gap. - Presents an in-depth overview of both conventional bulk semiconductors and low-dimensional, novel material systems, such as 1D structures and 2D monolayers - Addresses a range of defects in a variety of systems, providing a comparative approach - Includes sections on advances in theory that provide insights on where this body of research might lead

This book, written by a pioneer in surface physics and thin film research and the inventor of Low Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM), Spin-Polarized Low Energy Electron Microscopy (SPLEEM) and Spectroscopic Photo Emission and Low Energy Electron Microscopy (SPELEEM), covers these and other techniques for the imaging of surfaces with low energy (slow) electrons. These techniques also include Photoemission Electron Microscopy (PEEM), X-ray Photoemission Electron Microscopy (XPEEM), and their combination with microdiffraction and microspectroscopy, all of which use cathode lenses and slow electrons. Of particular interest are the fundamentals and applications of LEEM, PEEM, and XPEEM because of their widespread use. Numerous illustrations illuminate the fundamental aspects of the electron optics, the experimental setup, and particularly the application results with these instruments. Surface Microscopy with Low Energy Electrons will give the reader a unified picture of the imaging, diffraction, and spectroscopy methods that are possible using low energy electron microscopes.

Low Dimensional Materials: Bridging the Fundamental Principles to Practice Applications provides an overview of research on low-dimensional materials, devices, and their applications. There are seven chapters in the book, starting from the basic quantum theory in chapter one, to the control and characterization of the unique structures (chapters two and four), to the relation of the physical and chemical properties with structures (chapter five), and to the practical and promising applications in energy, information, and health (chapter six), before conclusions and future outlook in chapter seven. - Discusses the whole field of low-dimensional materials, from quantum mechanics and low dimensional effects to structure-property relations, various methods of fabrication and assembly techniques, and a characterization of atomic and interface structures - Covers a wide range of topics, making it a 'map' for readers to understand the fundamentals of low-dimensional materials - Written with a 'bottom-up approach, with a solid foundation of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics, and energy transport in low-dimensional systems

Zinc oxide (ZnO) belongs to the class of transparent conducting oxides that can be used as transparent electrodes in electronic devices or heated windows. In this book the material properties of, the deposition technologies for, and applications of zinc oxide in thin film solar cells are described in a comprehensive manner. Structural, morphological, optical and electronic properties of ZnO are treated in this review.

Nanometer scale physics is progressing rapidly: the top-down approach of semiconductor technology will soon encounter the scale of the bottom-up approaches of supramolecular chemistry and spatially localized excitations in ionic crystals. Advances in this area have already led to applications in optoelectronics. More may be expected. This book deals with the role of structure confinement in the spectroscopic characteristics of physical systems. It examines the fabrication, measurement and understanding of the relevant structures. It reports progress in the theory and in experimental techniques, starting with the consideration of fundamental principles and leading to the frontiers of research. The subjects dealt with include such spatially resolved structures as quantum wells, quantum wires, quantum dots, and luminescence, in both theoretical and practical terms.

This work represents the account of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Thin Film Growth Techniques for Low Dimensional Structures", held at the University of Sussex, Brighton, England from 15-19 Sept. 1986. The objective of the workshop was to review the problems of the growth and characterisation of thin semiconductor and metal layers. Recent advances in deposition techniques have made it possible to design new material which is based on ultra-thin layers and this is now posing challenges for scientists, technologists and engineers in the assessment and utilisation of such new material. Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has become well established as a method for growing thin single crystal layers of semiconductors. Until recently, MBE was confined to the growth of III-V compounds and alloys, but now it is being used for group IV semiconductors and II-VI compounds. Examples of such work are given in this volume. MBE has one major advantage over other crystal growth techniques in that the structure of the growing layer can be continuously monitored using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). This technique has offered a rare bonus in that the time dependent intensity variations of RHEED can be used to determine growth rates and alloy composition rather precisely. Indeed, a great deal of new information about the kinetics of crystal growth from the vapour phase is beginning to emerge.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR), time differential perturbed angular correlations (TDPAC), and the Mössbauer effect (ME) have been applied to the study of charge density wave (CDW) systems. These hyperfine techniques provide unique tools to probe the structure and symmetry of commensurate CDWs, give a clear fingerprint of incommensurate CDWs, and are ideally suited for CDW dynamics. This book represents a new attempt in the series `Physics and Chemistry of Materials with Low-dimensional Structures' to bring together a consistent group of scientific results obtained by nuclear spectroscopy related to CDW phenomena in pseudo-one- and two-dimensional systems. The individual chapters contain: the theory of CDWs in chain-like transition metal tetrachalcogenides; NMR, NQR, TDPAC, and ME investigations of layered transition metal dichalcogenides; NMR studies of CDW-transport in chain-like NbSe3 and molybdenum bronzes; multinuclear NMR of KCP; high resolution NMR of organic conductors. This book is of interest to graduate students and all scientists who want to acquire a broader knowledge of nuclear spectroscopy techniques applied to CDW systems.

In the summer of 1972, I had the privilege and responsibility of organizing a Gordon Conference on the "High-Energy Spectroscopy of Solids." The Thursday evening session focused on future directions for high-energy spectroscopy. The possibilities associated with synchrotron radiation for future research became a central issue. I was asked to choose the members of the panel and chair the session. Although all five members of the panel went on to have distinguished careers using synchrotron radiation, at the time some of them were skeptical about the future role of synchrotron radiation sources in high-energy photon spectroscopy. The discussion became heated, and many members of the audience spoke, both pro and con. One member of the panel produced a detailed argument that synchrotron radiation would never rival standard X-ray tubes. We found out that there were estimates for properties of synchrotrons that differed by orders of magnitude from those of X-ray tubes. That much uncertainty was expressed at a meeting that took place less than twenty years ago. It is hard to believe that, even though at that time synchrotron radiation was already being used for photoemission studies of solids and surfaces and intershell excitations in solids, the potential impact and importance of this area was not fully realized even by the experts. Today synchrotron radiation is one of the primary tools for studying surfaces, and synchrotron radiation has affected many other areas of condensed-matter physics---even superconductivity.