This coherent monograph describes and explains quantum phenomena in two-dimensional (2D) electron systems with extremely strong internal interactions, which cannot be described by the conventional Fermi-liquid approach. The central physical objects considered are the 2D Coulomb liquid, of which the average Coulomb interaction energy per electron is much higher than the mean kinetic energy, and the Wigner solid. The text provides a new and comprehensive review of the remarkable properties of Coulomb liquids and solids formed on the free surface of liquid helium and other interfaces. This book is intended for graduate students and researchers in the fields of quantum liquids, electronic properties of 2D systems, and solid-state physics. It includes different levels of sophistication so as to be useful for both theorists and experimentalists. The presentation is largely self-contained, and also describes some instructive examples that will be of general interest to solid-state physicists.

Nanoplasmonics is a young topic of research, which is part of nanophotonics and nano-optics. Nanoplasmonics concerns to the investigation of electron oscillations in metallic nanostructures and nanoparticles. Surface plasmons have optical properties, which are very interesting. For instance, surface plasmons have the unique capacity to confine light at the nanoscale. Moreover, surface plasmons are very sensitive to the surrounding medium and the properties of the materials on which they propagate. In addition to the above, the surface plasmon resonances can be controlled by adjusting the size, shape, periodicity, and materials' nature. All these optical properties can enable a great number of applications, such as biosensors, optical modulators, photodetectors, and photovoltaic devices. This book is intended for a broad audience and provides an overview of some of the fundamental knowledges and applications of nanoplasmonics.

This monograph assimilates new research in the field of low-dimensional metals. It provides a detailed overview of the current status of research on quasi-one- and two-dimensional molecular metals, describing normal-state properties, magnetic field effects, superconductivity, and the phenomena of interacting p and d electrons. It includes a number of findings likely to become standard material in future textbooks on solid-state physics.

The author develops the effective-mass theory of excitons in low-dimensional semiconductors and describes numerical methods for calculating the optical absorption including Coulomb interaction, geometry, and external fields. The theory is applied to Fano resonances in low-dimensional semiconductors and the Zener breakdown in superlattices. Comparing theoretical results with experiments, the book is essentially self-contained; it is a hands-on approach with detailed derivations, worked examples, illustrative figures, and computer programs. The book is clearly structured and will be valuable as an advanced-level self-study or course book for graduate students, lecturers, and researchers.

"Solid-State Theory - An Introduction" is a textbook for graduate students of physics and material sciences. Whilst covering the traditional topics of older textbooks, it also takes up new developments in theoretical concepts and materials that are connected with such breakthroughs as the quantum-Hall effects, the high-Tc superconductors, and the low-dimensional systems realized in solids. Thus besides providing the fundamental concepts to describe the physics of the electrons and ions comprising the solid, including their interactions, the book casts a bridge to the experimental facts and gives the reader an excellent insight into current research fields. A compilation of problems makes the book especially valuable to both students and teachers.

This book describes the central aspects of diffusion in solids, and goes on to provide easy access to important information about diffusion in metals, alloys, semiconductors, ion-conducting materials, glasses and nanomaterials. Coverage includes diffusion-controlled phenomena including ionic conduction, grain-boundary and dislocation pipe diffusion. This book will benefit graduate students in such disciplines as solid-state physics, physical metallurgy, materials science, and geophysics, as well as scientists in academic and industrial research laboratories.

Physical Acoustics in the Solid State reviews the modern aspects in the field, including many experimental results, especially those involving ultrasonics. It covers practically all fields of solid-state physics. After a review of the relevant experimental techniques and an introduction to the theory of elasticity, the book details applications in the various fields of condensed matter physics.

This comprehensive text describes the fundamentals of X-ray multiple-wave interaction in crystals and its applications in condensed matter physics and crystallography. It covers current theoretical approaches and application methods for many materials, including macromolecular crystals, thin films, semiconductors, quasicrystals and nonlinear optical materials. X-ray optics is also addressed. Designed primarily as a reference for researchers in condensed matter, crystallography, materials science, and synchrotron-related topics, the book will also be useful as a textbook for graduate and senior-year undergraduate courses on special topics in X-ray diffraction.

Addressing graduate students and researchers, this book gives a very detailed theoretical and computational description of multiple scattering in solid matter. Particular emphasis is placed on solids with reduced dimensions, on full potential approaches and on relativistic treatments. For the first time approaches such as the screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method are reviewed, considering all formal steps such as single-site scattering, structure constants and screening transformations, and also the numerical point of view. Furthermore, a very general approach is presented for solving the Poisson equation, needed within density functional theory in order to achieve self-consistency. Special chapters are devoted to the Coherent Potential Approximation and to the Embedded Cluster Method, used, for example, for describing nanostructured matter in real space. In a final chapter, physical properties related to the (single-particle) Green's function, such as magnetic anisotropies, interlayer exchange coupling, electric and magneto-optical transport and spin-waves, serve to illustrate the usefulness of the methods described.

In recent years the field of semiconductor optics has been pushed to several extremes. The size of semiconductor structures has shrunk to dimensions of a few nanometers, the semiconductor-light interaction is studied on timescales as fast as a few femtoseconds, and transport properties on a length scale far below the wavelength of light have been revealed. These advances were driven by rapid improvements in both semiconductor and optical technologies and were further facilitated by progress in the theoretical description of optical excitations in semiconductors. This book, written by leading experts in the field, provides an up-to-date introduction to the optics of semiconductors and their nanostructures so as to help the reader understand these exciting new developments. It also discusses recently established applications, such as blue-light emitters, as well as the quest for future applications in areas such as spintronics, quantum information processing, and third-generation solar cells.