About three decades after the first experiments on deep inelastic lepton hadron scattering began to investigate the structure of hadrons, the history of this fruitful field of particle physics continues in the broad spectrum of research performed at the electron and positron proton collider HERA at DESY, where the multipurpose detectors ZEUS and H1 access ep scattering at a center of mass energy of 300 GeV and explore as yet uncharted kinematic realms of deep inelastic scattering. After the first years of data taking at HERA, each of the experiments has collected a total of roughly 40 pb 1 of e+p data, yielding sensitivity to deep inelastic e+p interactions at high four momentum transfers, Q2, where typi cal cross sections drop into the subpicobarn regime. This kinematic domain is characterized by electroweak unification, manifesting itself most markedly in the neutral and charged current cross sections, which approach an equal order of magnitude as Q2 rises above the square of the W and Z masses. Consequently, HERA allows, for the first time, studies of both types of pro cesses simultaneously with the same initial state conditions and in the same detector, and thus we can investigate the interplay of electroweak and strong forces governing the respective cross sections.

A comprehensive summary of experiments on Compton scattering from the proton and neutron performed at the electron accelerator MAMI. The experiments cover a photon energy range from 30 MeV to 500 MeV. The reader is introduced to the theoretical concepts of Compton scattering, followed by a description of the experiments on the proton, their analysis and results.

Since the discovery of high temperature superconductors the scientific com nmnity has been very active in research on material and system development as well as on the basic understanding of the mechanism of superconductiv ity at high transition temperatures. Industrial groups joined in very soon as with these new materials the prospects for commercial application of super conductivity seemed to be more promising than ever. Materials processing was divided into film deposition and bulk preparation techniques, the latter including conductor fabrication and melt growth of monolithic samples as well. Because of the high impact of possible applications in energy technol ogy, wire and tape fabrication of the BSCCO superconductors is one of the most important fields, in addition to thin film technology for mobile comuni cation. Only since processes like IBAD and RABiTS TM were invented have film deposition techniques also become important for energy technology. In order to produce suitable conductors with material properties which meet the challenge imposed by energy technology, detailed understanding of the phase formation and physical properties of the high temperature super conductors is necessary. The goal of this book is on one hand to provide the basic information on phase formation and physical properties, and to give a short overview of the state of the art in conductor preparation and character ization. On the other hand it contains the author's own results in the field of preparation and characterization.

Overview of current developments in nonlinear photorefractive optics. The book dicusses exciting discoveries, with special emphasis on transverse effects such as spatial soliton formation and interaction, spontaneous pattern formation and pattern competition in active feedback systems. Different aspects of potential applications, such as wave guiding in adaptive photorefractive solitons and techniques for pattern control for information processing, are also described.

Presents fundamental theories and simulations of the spatio-temporal dynamics and quantum fluctuations in semiconductor lasers. The dynamic interplay of light and matter is theoretically described by taking into account microscopic carrier dynamics, spatially dependent light-field propagation and the influence of spontaneous emission and noise.

This monograph is the first to give a comprehensive account of the theory of semiconductor cavity quantum electrodynamics for such systems in the weak-coupling and strong-coupling regimes. It presents the important concepts, together with relevant, recent experimental results.

This monograph represents a critical survey of the outstanding capabilities of X-ray diffuse scattering for the structural characterization of mesoscopic material systems. The mesoscopic regime comprises length scales ranging from a few up to some hundreds of nanometers. It is of particular relevance at semiconductor layer systems where, for example, interface roughness or low-dimensional objects such as quantum dots and quantum wires have attracted much interest. An extensive overview of the present state-of-the-art theory of X-ray diffuse scattering at mesoscopic structures is given followed by a valuable description of various experimental techniques. Selected up-to-date examples are discussed. The aim of the present book is to combine aspects of self-organized growth of mesoscopic structures with corresponding X-ray diffuse scattering experiments.