This fourth volume in the series covering the latest results in the field includes abstracts of papers which appeared within the approximate period of mid-2000 to mid-2001. The scope of this coverage includes, in addition to traditional semiconductors, the increasingly important carbide, nitride and silicide semiconductors. Semiconducting oxides are not covered, as information on these can be found in the "Defects and Diffusion in Ceramics Retrospective" series. The increasing interest in ceramic-type semiconductors is again reflected by the invited papers, which include an extensive review of the particular problems involved in growing GaN films on sapphire substrates. Nevertheless, established semiconductors continue to spring surprises and to offer new problems and these are also addressed here by a number of further detailed reviews of work on Si, InP and InGaP. Finally, new results are to be found here concerning diffusive processes and defect behaviour in Ge, GeSi, InGaAs, Si and ZnSe. Altogether, these 8 long reviews, 9 research papers and 752 selected abstracts provide an invaluable and up-to-date insight into current and future trends in semiconductor theory, processing and applications.

Defects in semiconductors have been studied for many years, in many cases with a view toward controlling their behaviour through various forms of “defect engineering”. For example, in the bulk, charging significantly affects the total concentration of defects that are available to mediate phenomena such as solid-state diffusion. Surface defects play an important role in mediating surface mass transport during high temperature processing steps such as epitaxial film deposition, diffusional smoothing in reflow, and nanostructure formation in memory device fabrication. “Charged Defects in Semiconductors” details the current state of knowledge regarding the properties of the ionized defects that can affect the behaviour of advanced transistors, photo-active devices, catalysts, and sensors. Features: group IV, III-V, and oxide semiconductors; intrinsic and extrinsic defects; and, point defects, as well as defect pairs, complexes and clusters.

A self-consistent model of point defects requires a reliable connection with the experimentally deduced structural, spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties of the defect centres, to allow their unambiguous identification. This book focuses on the properties of defects in group IV semiconductors and seeks to clarify whether full knowledge of their chemical nature can account for several problems encountered in practice. It is shown how difficult the fulfilment of self-consistency conditions can be, even today, after more than four decades of dedicated research work, especially in the case of compound semiconductors, such as SiC, but also in the apparently simple cases of silicon and germanium. The reason for this is that the available microscopic models do not yet account for defect interactions in real solids.

This 14th volume in the series covers the latest results in the field of Defects and Diffusion in Semiconductor. The issue also includes some original papers: An Experimental Study of the Thermal Properties of Modified 9Cr-1Mo Steel; Physico-Mechanical Properties of Sintered Iron-Silica Sand Nanoparticle Composites: A Preliminary Study; Defect and Dislocation Density Parameters of 5251 Al Alloy Using Positron Annihilation Lifetime Technique; A Novel Computational Strategy to Enhance the Ability of Elaborate Search by Entire Swarm to Find the Best Solution in Optimization of AMCs; Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Nanoceramic Magnesium Ferrite Material Doped with Samarium and Dysprosium for Designing – Microstrip Patch Antenna; ZnO Varistor Defective Gd and Pr Ions; Injecting CO2 and Pumping Out Saline Formation Water Simultaneously to Control Pressure Build-Up while Storing CO2 in Deep Saline Aquifers; Studying the Effect of Low ?-Radiation Doses on CR-39 Polymers Using Positron Annihilation Lifetime and Mechanical Properties.

This thirteenth volume in the series covering the latest results in the field includes abstracts of papers which have appeared since the publication of Annual Retrospective XII (Volumes 303-304). As well as the over 300 semiconductor-related abstracts, the issue includes the original papers: “Effect of KCl Addition upon the Photocatalytic Activity of Zinc Sulphide” (D.Vaya, A.Jain, S.Lodha, V.K.Sharma, S.C.Ameta), “Localized Vibrational Mode in Manganese-Doped Zinc Sulphide and Cadmium Sulphide Nanoparticles” (M.Ragam, N.Sankar, K.Ramachandran), “The Effect of a Light Impurity on the Electronic Structure of Dislocations in NiAl” (L.Chen, Z.Qiu), “Analysis of Finite Element Discretisation Schemes for Multi-Phase Darcy Flow” (D.P.Adhikary, A.H.Wilkins), “Theoretical Investigations of the Defect Structure for Ni3+ in ZnO” (Z.H.Zhang, S.Y.Wu, S.X.Zhang).

This eighth volume in the series covering the latest results in the field includes abstracts of papers which appeared between the publication of Annual Retrospective VII (Volumes 230-232) and the end of 2005 (allowing for vagaries of journal availability).

This book contains the first comprehensive review of intrinsic point defects, impurities and their complexes in silicon. Besides compiling the structures, energetic properties, identified electrical levels and spectroscopic signatures, and the diffusion behaviour from investigations, it gives a comprehensive introduction into the relevant fundamental concepts.