Narrow gap semiconductors have provided an exciting field of research and show a number of extreme physical and material characteristics. They are the established material systems for infrared detectors and emitters, and with new developments in the technology these materials are emerging as a viable route to high speed, low power electronics. New kinds of narrow gap semiconductor, such as graphene and other composite nanocrystals, are also providing renewed interest in the underlying physics. The Thirteenth International Conference on Narrow Gap Semiconductors (NGS-13) was held at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK in July 2007. The conference brought together experts and young scientists to discuss the latest findings and developments in the field. This book contains the invited and contributed papers which were presented at this meeting and serves to provide a broad overview of the current worldwide activities in narrow gap semiconductor research. The subjects covered are theoretical and material physics of narrow gap semiconductors and quantum heterostructures, spin related phenomenon including carrier dynamics and magnetotransport, carbon nanotubes and graphene as novel narrow gap material, as well as device physics including transistors, mid and far-infrared lasers and detectors.

Narrow gap semiconductors are the most important materials for the preparation of advanced modern infrared systems. They often operate at the extremes of the rules of semiconductor science. This book offers clear descriptions of crystal growth and the fundamental structure and properties of these unique materials. Topics covered include band structure, optical and transport properties, and lattice vibrations and spectra. A thorough treatment of the properties of low-dimensional systems and their relation to infrared applications is provided.

Narrow gap semiconductors obey the general rules of semiconductor science, but often exhibit extreme features of these rules because of the same properties that produce their narrow gaps. Consequently these materials provide sensitive tests of theory, and the opportunity for the design of innovative devices. Narrow gap semiconductors are the most important materials for the preparation of advanced modern infrared systems. Device Physics of Narrow Gap Semiconductors, a forthcoming second book, offers descriptions of the materials science and device physics of these unique materials. Topics covered include impurities and defects, recombination mechanisms, surface and interface properties, and the properties of low dimensional systems for infrared applications. This book will help readers to understand not only semiconductor physics and materials science, but also how they relate to advanced opto-electronic devices. The final chapter describes the device physics of photoconductive detectors, photovoltaic infrared detectors, super lattices and quantum wells, infrared lasers, and single photon infrared detectors.

Systematically discusses the growth method, material properties, and applications for key semiconductor materials MOVPE is a chemical vapor deposition technique that produces single or polycrystalline thin films. As one of the key epitaxial growth technologies, it produces layers that form the basis of many optoelectronic components including mobile phone components (GaAs), semiconductor lasers and LEDs (III-Vs, nitrides), optical communications (oxides), infrared detectors, photovoltaics (II-IV materials), etc. Featuring contributions by an international group of academics and industrialists, this book looks at the fundamentals of MOVPE and the key areas of equipment/safety, precursor chemicals, and growth monitoring. It covers the most important materials from III-V and II-VI compounds to quantum dots and nanowires, including sulfides and selenides and oxides/ceramics. Sections in every chapter of Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE): Growth, Materials Properties and Applications cover the growth of the particular materials system, the properties of the resultant material, and its applications. The book offers information on arsenides, phosphides, and antimonides; nitrides; lattice-mismatched growth; CdTe, MCT (mercury cadmium telluride); ZnO and related materials; equipment and safety; and more. It also offers a chapter that looks at the future of the technique. Covers, in order, the growth method, material properties, and applications for each material Includes chapters on the fundamentals of MOVPE and the key areas of equipment/safety, precursor chemicals, and growth monitoring Looks at important materials such as III-V and II-VI compounds, quantum dots, and nanowires Provides topical and wide-ranging coverage from well-known authors in the field Part of the Materials for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications series Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE): Growth, Materials Properties and Applications is an excellent book for graduate students, researchers in academia and industry, as well as specialist courses at undergraduate/postgraduate level in the area of epitaxial growth (MOVPE/ MOCVD/ MBE).

With full color throughout, this unique text provides an accessible yet rigorous introduction to the basic principles, technology, and applications of nanophotonics. It explains key physical concepts such as quantum confinement in semiconductors, light confinement in metal and dielectric nanostructures, and wave coupling in nanostructures, and describes how they can be applied in lighting sources, lasers, photonic circuitry, and photovoltaic systems. Readers will gain an intuitive insight into the commercial implementation of nanophotonic components, in both current and potential future devices, as well as challenges facing the field. The fundamentals of semiconductor optics, optical material properties, and light propagation are included, and new and emerging fields such as colloidal photonics, Si-based photonics, nanoplasmonics, and bioinspired photonics are all discussed. This is the 'go-to' guide for graduate students and researchers in electrical engineering who are interested in nanophotonics, and students taking nanophotonics courses.

IV-VI and IV-VI2 semiconductors are among the most interesting materials in semiconductor physics. The electrical properties of these semiconductors can also be tuned by adding impurity atoms. These semiconductors either have already found use or are promising materials for infrared sensors and sources, thermoelectric elements, solar cells, memory elements, etc. The basic characteristics of these compounds, namely, narrow bandgap, high permittivity, relatively high radiation resistance, high mobility of charge carriers, and high bond ionicity, are unique among semiconductor substances. Because of their wide application in various devices, the search for new semiconductor materials and the improvement of existing materials is an important field of study. Doping with impurities is a common method of modifying and diversifying the properties of physical and chemical semiconductors. This book covers all known information about phase relations in ternary systems based on IV-VI and IV-VI2 semiconductors, providing the first systematic account of phase equilibria in ternary systems and making research originally published in Russia accessible to the wider scientific community. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students studying materials science, solid state chemistry, and engineering. It will also be relevant for researchers at industrial and national laboratories, in addition to phase diagram researchers, inorganic chemists, and solid-state physicists. FEATURES Provides up-to-date experimental and theoretical information Allows readers to synthesize semiconducting materials with predetermined properties Delivers a critical evaluation of many industrially important systems presented in the form of two-dimensional sections for the condensed phases