Applying a unified quantum approach, contributors offer fresh insights into the theoretical developments in the excitation energy transfer processes in condensed matter. This comprehensive volume examines Frenkel and Wannier excitonic processes; rates of excitonic processes; theory of laser sputter and polymer ablation; and polarons, excitonic polarons and self-trapping.

This book presents an account of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Energy Transfer Processes in Condensed Matter", held in Erice, Italy, from June 16 to June 30, 1983. This meeting was organized by the International School of Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy of the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture. The objective of the Institute was to present a comprehensive treatment of the basic mechanisms by which electronic excitation energy, initially localized in a particular constituent or region of a condensed material, transfers itself to the other parts of the system. Energy transfer processes are important to such varied .fields as spectroscopy, lasers, phosphor technology, artificial solar energy conversion, and photobiology. This meeting was the first encounter of this sort entirely dedicated to this important topic. A total of 65 participants came from 47 laboratories and 16 nations (Belgium, Czechoslovakia, F.R. of Germany, France, Greece, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and the United States of A America). The secretaries of the course were: Ms. Aliki Karipidou for the scientific aspects and Mr. Massimo Minella for the admini strative aspects of the meeting.

At Yamada Conference LIII, papers on many novel materials and on novel phenomena in condensed matter physics were presented — for instance, the achievement of simultaneous creation of excitons and free-electron-hole pairs in rare gas solids, and a low frequency fluctuation of the spectral shift of indirect excitons in GaAs coupled quantum wells. Single molecule spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying molecules including biological systems; the study of delocalization of excitons in the photosynthetic light harvesting antenna system was also reported. The proceedings thus contain many excellent papers dealing with current research topics on the excitonic processes in bulk, quantum wells, quantum dots and other confined systems. This book will serve as an excellent source of recent references and reviews for a wide range of researchers in physics, chemistry, engineering and biological sciences.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)

At Yamada Conference LIII, papers on many novel materials and on novel phenomena in condensed matter physics were presented ? for instance, the achievement of simultaneous creation of excitons and free-electron-hole pairs in rare gas solids, and a low frequency fluctuation of the spectral shift of indirect excitons in GaAs coupled quantum wells. Single molecule spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying molecules including biological systems; the study of delocalization of excitons in the photosynthetic light harvesting antenna system was also reported. The proceedings thus contain many excellent papers dealing with current research topics on the excitonic processes in bulk, quantum wells, quantum dots and other confined systems. This book will serve as an excellent source of recent references and reviews for a wide range of researchers in physics, chemistry, engineering and biological sciences.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in: ? Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)

The Advanced Study Institute (AS!) considered a number offacets of the very rapidly advancing field of theoretical and experimental aspects of ultrashort processes in condensed matter. Common threads exist between a series of example cases. One major subgroup of topics involves the ultrashort dynamics of excitations of various "particles" produced through the interactions of condensed matter with ultrashort duration laser light. Examples ofthe excitations include electronic and hole carriers, electron-hole plasma, phonons, vibrons and rotons, two phonon states, and excitons. Experimentation on the dynamics of such excitations, are carried out in the bulk, at surfaces, in thin films, and in quantum wells. The dynamical steps which the excitations usually undergo include photo-excitation, local thermalization, particle-particle interaction, particle phonon interactions and eventual return to true thermal equilibrium. This ASI was organized to benefit particularly advanced graduate students, specifically, those near the end of their Ph.D. thesis projects, and also for postdoctoral scholars already active in the field. The overall organizational goal was centered around a set oftutorially based lectures intermingled with full scale discussion periods of equal time and importance as the lectures. The general discussion periods were designed to offer to the participants ample time to ask detailed questions and to make comments and contributions of their own. In order to complete the involvement of the participants a full length poster session was also held. A representative set of abstracts of these posters appear as an Appendix to the lectures.

This is the first book to specifically focus on semiconductor nanocrystals, and address their synthesis and assembly, optical properties and spectroscopy, and potential areas of nanocrystal-based devices. The enormous potential of nanoscience to impact on industrial output is now clear. Over the next two decades, much of the science will transfer into new products and processes. One emerging area where this challenge will be very successfully met is the field of semiconductor nanocrystals. Also known as colloidal quantum dots, their unique properties have attracted much attention in the last twenty years.