Understanding Semiconductors

This text brings together traditional solid-state approaches from the 20th century with developments of the early part of the 21st century, to reach an understanding of semiconductor physics in its multifaceted forms. It reveals how an understanding of what happens within the material can lead to insights into what happens in its use.

Essentially all automotive electrical systems are effected by the new electrical system voltage levels. As in all previous editions, this revision keeps Understanding Automotive Electronics up-to-date with technological advances in this rapidly evolving field. *Discusses the development of hybrid/electric vehicles and their associated electronic control/monitoring systems *Contains the new technologies incorporated into conventional gasoline and diesel-fueled engines *Covers the shift from 14-volt to 42-volt systems and includes info on future automotive elctronic systems

The book provides an overview of the fascinating spectrum of semiconductor physics, devices and applications, presented from a historical perspective. It covers the development of the subject from its inception in the early nineteenth century to the recent millennium. Written in a lively, informal style, it emphasizes the interaction between pure scientific push and commercial pull, on the one hand, and between basic physics, materials, and devices, on the other. It also sets the various device developments in the context of systems requirements and explains how such developments met wide ranging consumer demands. It is written so as to appeal to students at all levels in physics, electrical engineering, and materials science, to teachers, lecturers, and professionals working in the field, as well as to a non-specialist scientific readership.

Applications of SEM techniques of microcharacterization have proliferated to cover every type of material and virtually every branch of science and technology. This book emphasizes the fundamental physical principles. The first section deals with the foundation of microcharacterization in electron beam instruments and the second deals with the interpretation of the information obtained in the main operating modes of a scanning electron microscope.

Ultrafast spectroscopy of semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures is currently one of the most exciting areas of research in condensed-matter physics. Remarkable recent progress in the generation of tunable femtosecond pulses has allowed direct investigation of the most fundamental dynamical processes in semiconductors. This second edition presents the most striking recent advances in the techniques of ultrashort pulse generation and ultrafast spectroscopy; it discusses the physics of relaxation, tunneling and transport dynamics in semiconductors and semiconductor nanostructures following excitation by femtosecond laser pulses.

This book has been designed as a result of the author’s teaching experiences; students in the courses came from various disciplines and it was very difficult to prescribe a suitable textbook, not because there are no books on these topics, but because they are either too exhaustive or very elementary. This book, therefore, includes only relevant topics in the fundamentals of the physics of semiconductors and of electrochemistry needed for understanding the intricacy of the subject of photovoltaic solar cells and photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar cells. The book provides the basic concepts of semiconductors, p:n junctions, PEC solar cells, electrochemistry of semiconductors, and photochromism. Researchers, engineers and students engaged in researching/teaching PEC cells or knowledge of our sun, its energy, and its distribution to the earth will find essential topics such as the physics of semiconductors, the electrochemistry of semiconductors, p:n junctions, Schottky junctions, the concept of Fermi energy, and photochromism and its industrial applications. "The topics in this book are explained with clear illustration and indispensable terminology. It covers both fundamental and advanced topics in photoelectrochemistry and I believe that the content presented in this monograph will be a resource in the development of both academic and industrial research". —Professor Akira Fujishima, President, Tokyo University of Science, and Director, Photocatalysis International Research Center, Tokyo University of Science, Japan

Solid state physics after solving so successfully many fundamental problems in perfect or slightly imperfect crystals, tried in recent years to attack problems associated with large disorder with the aim to understand the consequences of the lack of the long-range order. Semiconductors are much more changed by disorder than metals or insulators, and appear to be the most suitable materials for fundamental work. Considerable exploratory work on amorphous and liquid semiconductors was done by the Leningrad School since the early fifties. In recent years, much research in several countries was directed to deepen the understanding of the structural, electronic, optical, vibrational, magnetic and other proper ties of these materials and to possibly approach the present level of under standing of crystalline semiconductors. This effort was stimulated not only by purely scientific interest but also by the possibility of new applications from which memory devices in the general sense are perhaps the most challenging. The research met with serious difficulties which are absent in crystals.

The discovery of electricity fundamentally changed day-to-day life. Yet after electricity's discovery, scientists worked to find the best way to harness electrical currents. Today, semiconductors are known as the key components of transistors and integrated circuits. Semiconductors shows how Michael Faraday paved the way for three men (John Bardeen, William Shockley, and Walter Brattain) to invent transistors, changing history forever. The book investigates semiconductors' role in cutting edge technology and explains how semiconductors work through diagrams and full-color photos.