Phonons are always present in the solid state even at an absolute temperature of 0 K where zero point vibrations still abound. Moreover, phonons interact with all other excitations of the solid state and, thereby, influence most of its properties. Historically experimental information on phonon transport came from measurements of thermal conductivity. Over the past two decades much more, and much more detailed, information on phonon transport and on many of the inherent phonon interaction processes have come to light from experiments which use nonequilibrium phonons to study their dynamics. The resultant research field has most recently blossomed with the development of ever more sophisticated experimental and theoretical methods which can be applied to it. In fact, the field is moving so rapidly that new members of the research community have difficulties in keeping up to date. This NATO Advanced Study Institute (ASI) was organized with the objective of overcoming the information barrier between those expert in the field and those who are new to it. Thus it was decided to (i) organize a set of tutorially based lectures covering most of the important facets in the field, and (ii) to produce an Institute proceedings which would serve both as the first general textbook, as well as a valuable reference book, for this field of knowledge.

The physics of nonequilibrium electrons and phonons in semiconductors is an important branch of fundamental physics that has many practical applications, especially in the development of ultrafast and ultrasmall semiconductor devices. This volume is devoted to different trends in the field which are presently at the forefront of research. Special attention is paid to the ultrafast relaxation processes in bulk semiconductors and two-dimensional semiconductor structures, and to their study by different spectroscopic methods, both pulsed and steady-state. The evolution of energy and space distribution of nonequilibrium electrons and the relaxation kinetics of hot carriers and phonons are considered under various conditions such as temperature, doping and pumping intensity by leading experts in the field.

The advent of the femto-second laser has enabled us to observe phenomena at the atomic timescale. One area to reap enormous benefits from this ability is ultrafast dynamics. Collecting the works of leading experts from around the globe, Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Semiconductors and Nanostructures surveys recent developments in a variety of areas in ultrafast dynamics. In eight authoritative chapters illustrated by more than 150 figures, this book spans a broad range of new techniques and advances. It begins with a review of spin dynamics in a high-mobility two-dimensional electron gas, followed by the generation, propagation, and nonlinear properties of high-amplitude, ultrashort strain solitons in solids. The discussion then turns to nonlinear optical properties of nanoscale artificial dielectrics, optical properties of GaN self-assembled quantum dots, and optical studies of carrier dynamics and non-equilibrium optical phonons in nitride-based semiconductors. Rounding out the presentation, the book examines ultrafast non-equilibrium electron dynamics in metal nanoparticles, monochromatic acoustic phonons in GaAs, and electromagnetically induced transparency in semiconductor quantum wells. With its pedagogical approach and practical, up-to-date coverage, Non-Equilibrium Dynamics of Semiconductors and Nanostructures allows you to easily put the material into practice, whether you are a seasoned researcher or new to the field.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Fifth International Confer ence on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter held June 2-6, 1986 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The preceding confer ences were held at St. Maxime and Paris in 1972, at the University of Nottingham in 1975, at Brown University in 1979, and at the University of Stuttgart in 1983. The Illinois conference dealt with both traditional and newly developing topics in the area of phonon scattering. Papers were presented on phonon scattering in glassy and crystalline dielectrics, semi conductors, metals (both normal and superconducting), and in the areas of phonon imaging, large wave vector phonons, optical techniques and new experimental methods. The 12 invited papers and 100 contributed papers were presented by the 125 scientists from 14 countries. A citation was presented to Professor Paul Klemens of the University of Connecticut for his pioneering contributions to the physics of phonon scattering in solids. Paul Gustav Klemens Born - Vienna (1925) B. Sc. - Sydney (1946) D. Phil. - Oxford (1950) National Standards Lab. , Sydney (1950-1959) Westinghouse Research Labs. , Pittsburgh (1964-1969) Univ. of Connecticut (1967- ) Fellow: American Physical Society British Institute of Physics & Physical Society A long career dedicated to the understanding of thermal transport. Few papers are published on phonon thermal transport that do not reference his work.

The field of low-dimensional structures has been experiencing rapid development in both theoretical and experimental research. Phonons in Low Dimensional Structures is a collection of chapters related to the properties of solid-state structures dependent on lattice vibrations. The book is divided into two parts. In the first part, research topics such as interface phonons and polaron states, carrier-phonon non-equilibrium dynamics, directional projection of elastic waves in parallel array of N elastically coupled waveguides, collective dynamics for longitudinal and transverse phonon modes, and elastic properties for bulk metallic glasses are related to semiconductor devices and metallic glasses devices. The second part of the book contains, among others, topics related to superconductor, phononic crystal carbon nanotube devices such as phonon dispersion calculations using density functional theory for a range of superconducting materials, phononic crystal-based MEMS resonators, absorption of acoustic phonons in the hyper-sound regime in fluorine-modified carbon nanotubes and single-walled nanotubes, phonon transport in carbon nanotubes, quantization of phonon thermal conductance, and phonon Anderson localization.

This book presents a systematic, comprehensive and up-to-date description of the physical basis of the balance equation transport theory and its applications in bulk and low-dimensional semiconductors. The different aspects of the balance equation method, originally proposed by C S Ting and the author of the present book, were reviewed in the volume entitled Physics of Hot Electron Transport in Semiconductors (edited by C S Ting, World Scientific, 1992). Since then, this method has been extensively developed and applied to various new fields, such as transport in nonparabolic systems, spatially nonuniform systems and semiconductor devices, miniband conduction of superlattices, hot-electron magnetotransport, effects of impact ionization in transport, microwave-induced magnetoresistance oscillation, radiation-driven transport and electron cooling, etc. Due to its simplicity and effectiveness, the balance equation approach has become a useful tool to tackle the many transport phenomena in semiconductors, and provides a reliable basis for developing theories, modeling devices and explaining experiments.The book may be used as a textbook by graduate students. It will also benefit researchers in the field by helping them grasp the basic principles and techniques of the method, without having to spend a lot of time digging out the information from widespread literature covering a period of 30 years.

This volume contains the proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Phonon Scattering in Condensed Matter held August 3-7, 1992, at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA. The preceding conferences were held at: St. Maxime and Paris (France) 1972, Nottingham (UK) 1975, Providence (USA) 1979, Stuttgart (Germany) 1983, Urbana (USA) 1986, and Heidelberg (Germany) 1989. The Heidelberg conference was held jointly with the Third International Con ference on Phonon Physics. The next conference, to be held in August, 1995, in Sapporo, Japan, and hosted by Professor T. Nakayama and his colleagues, will also be such a joint conference. This conference was attended by 227 scientists from 27 countries, and covered all aspects of phonon scattering in condensed matter, ranging from the more traditional topics of thermal conductivity, Kapitza resistance, and ballistic phonon propagation to the recently added topics, such as electron-phonon interaction in high-T c superconductors, the use of phonons in particle detection, and phonons in confined geometries. The 207 papers arranged in 11 chapters in this volume are a cross section of the present activities in the quite obviously vibrant field of phonons and their interactions.