An in-depth study of non-crystalline solids in which the arrangement of the atoms do not have long-range order. Describes the way amorphous solids are formed, the phenomenology of the liquid-to-glass and glass- to-liquid transition, and the technological applications. Emphasizes modern approaches such as scaling, localization, and percolation. Includes extensive treatment of structural aspects of amorphous solids, ranging from metallic glasses, to chalcogenides, to organic polymers. Incorporates illustrations for the clarification of physics concepts.

The Institute for Amorphous Studies was founded in 1982 as the international center for the investigation of amorphous mate rials. It has since played an important role in promoting the und er standing of disordered matter in general. An Institute lecture series on "Fundamentals of Amorphous Materials and Devices" was held during 1982-83 with distinguished speakers from universities and industry. These events were free and open to the public ,and were attended by many representatives of the scientific community. The lectures themselves were highly successful inasmuch as they provided not only formal instruction but also an opportunity for vigorous and stimulating debate. That last element could not be captured within the pages of a book I but the lectures concentrated on the latest advances in the field I which is why their essential contents are he re reproduced in collective form. Together they constitute an interdisciplinary status report of the field. The speakers brought many different viewpoints and a variety of back ground experiences io bear on the problems involved I but though language and conventions vary I the essential unity of the concerns is very clear I as indeed are the ultimate benefits of the many-sided approach.

The aim of this NATO ASI has been to present an up-to-date overview of current areas of interest in amorphous materials, with particular emphasis on electronic properties and device applications. In order to limit the material to a manageable amount, the meeting was concerned almost exclusively with semiconducting materials. This volume should be regarded as a follow-on to the NATO ASI held in Sozopol, Bulgaria in 1996 and published as "Amorphous Insulators and Semiconductors" edited by M.F. Thorpe and M.1. Mitkova (Kluwer Academic Publishers, NATO ASI series, 3 High Technology - Vol. 23). The lectures and seminars fill the gap between graduate courses and research seminars. The lecturers and seminar speakers were chosen as experts in their respective areas, and the lectures and seminars that were given are presented in this volume. During the first week of the meeting, an emphasis was placed on introductory lectures while the second week focused more on research seminars. There were two very good poster sessions that generated a lot of discussion, but these are not reproduced in this volume as the editors wanted to have only larger contributions to make the proceedings more coherent.

This book has its origins in the 1982 Spring College held at the Interna tional Centre for Theoretical Physics, Miramare, Trieste. The primary aim is to give a broad coverage of liquids and amorphous solids, at a level suitable for graduate students and research workers in condensed-matter physics, physical chemistry, and materials science. The book is intended for experimental workers with interests in the basic theory. While the topics covered are many, it was planned to place special emphasis on both static structure and dynamics, including electronic transport. This emphasis is evident from the rather complete coverage of the determination of static structure from both diffraction experiments and, for amorphous solids especially, from model building. The theory of the structure of liquids and liquid mixtures is then dealt with from the standpoint of, first, basic statistical mechanics and, subsequently, pair potentials constructed from the electron theory of simple metals and their alloys. The discussion of static structure is completed in two chapters with rather different emphases on liquid surfaces and interfaces. The first deals with the basic statistical mechanics of neutral and charged interfaces, while the second is concerned with solvation and double-layer effects. Dynamic structure is introduced by a comprehensive discussion of single-particle motion in liquids. This is followed by the structure and dynamics of charged fluids, where again much basic statistical mechanics is developed.

Today’s solar cell multi-GW market is dominated by crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafer technology, however new cell concepts are entering the market. One very promising solar cell design to answer these needs is the silicon hetero-junction solar cell, of which the emitter and back surface field are basically produced by a low temperature growth of ultra-thin layers of amorphous silicon. In this design, amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) constitutes both „emitter“ and „base-contact/back surface field“ on both sides of a thin crystalline silicon wafer-base (c-Si) where the electrons and holes are photogenerated; at the same time, a-Si:H passivates the c-Si surface. Recently, cell efficiencies above 23% have been demonstrated for such solar cells. In this book, the editors present an overview of the state-of-the-art in physics and technology of amorphous-crystalline heterostructure silicon solar cells. The heterojunction concept is introduced, processes and resulting properties of the materials used in the cell and their heterointerfaces are discussed and characterization techniques and simulation tools are presented.