Thermal Analysis of Micro-, Nano- and Non-Crystalline Materials: Transformation, Crystallization, Kinetics, and Thermodynamics complements and adds to volume 8 Glassy, Amorphous and Nano-Crystalline Materials by providing a coherent and authoritative overview of cutting-edge themes in this field. In particular, the book focuses on reaction thermodynamics and kinetics applied to solid-state chemistry and thermal physics of various states of materials. Written by an international array of distinguished academics, the book deals with fundamental and historical aspects of phenomenological kinetics, equilibrium background of processes, crystal defects, non-stoichiometry and nano-crystallinity, reduced glass-transition temperatures and glass-forming coefficients, determination of the glass transition by DSC, the role of heat transfer and phase transition in DTA experiments, explanation of DTA/DSC methods used for the estimation of crystal nucleation, structural relaxation and viscosity behaviour in glass and associated relaxation kinetics, influence of preliminary nucleation and coupled phenomenological kinetics, nucleation on both the strongly curved surfaces and nano-particles, crystallization of glassy and amorphous materials including oxides, chalcogenides and metals, non-parametric and fractal description of kinetics, disorder and dimensionality in nano-crystalline diamond, thermal analysis of waste glass batches, amorphous inorganic polysialates and bioactivity of hydroxyl groups as well as reaction kinetics and unconventional glass formability of oxide superconductors. Thermal Analysis of Micro-, Nano- and Non-Crystalline Materials: Transformation, Crystallization, Kinetics, and Thermodynamics is a valuable resource to advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and researches working in the application fields of material thermodynamics, thermal analysis, thermophysical measurements, and calorimetry.

The structural properties of materials play a fundamental role in the determination of their suitability for a specific application. This book is intended as a contribution to the efforts to increase the knowledge of the influence exerted on the properties of materials by their crystalline or amorphous structure. To this aim, some of the materials that are most promising for their use in different technological fields have been studied, namely graphene, titanium oxide, several types of functional metal oxides, porphyrinic crystalline solids, plasma deposited polymers, amorphous silicon, as well as hydrogenated amorphous carbon. These materials have been presented by the authors for their use in different applications, including microelectronics, photonics, and biomedicine.

The earliest experimental data on an oxygen-free glass have been published by Schulz-Sellack in 1870 [1]. Later on, in 1902, Wood [2], as well as Meier in 1910 [3], carried out the first researches on the optical properties of vitreous selenium. The interest in the glasses that exhibit transparency in the infrared region of the optical spectrum rose at the beginning of the twentieth century. Firstly were investigated the heavy metal oxides and the transparency limit was extended from (the case of the classical oxide glasses) up to wavelength. In order to extend this limit above the scientists tried the chemical compositions based on the elements of the sixth group of the Periodic Table, the chalcogens: sulphur, selenium and tellurium. The systematic research in the field of glasses based on chalcogens, called chalcogenide glasses, started at the middle of our century. In 1950 Frerichs [4] investigated the glass and published the paper: “New optical glasses transparent in infrared up to 12 . Several years later he started the study of the selenium glass and prepared several binary glasses with sulphur [5]. Glaze and co-workers [6] developed in 1957 the first method for the preparation of the glass at the industrial scale, while Winter-Klein [7] published reports on numerous chalcogenides prepared in the vitreous state.

This second edition deals in an elementary way with electrons in non-crystalline systems. It reflects advances in the theory of interactions in non-crystalline systems, provides a more detailed discussion of the "minimum metallic conductivity", and addresses the relevance of disorder in the new high-temperature semiconductors.

These proceedings focus on nanostructured and non-crystalline materials, including amorphous and multiphase systems, fine particles and granular systems, thin films, polymers and other disordered systems. The topics covered are: fabrication and processing techniques; relaxation, diffusive processes and molecular motions; structure and crystallization phenomena; electric and magnetic properties; and technological applications.

The Workshop on Physics and Application of Non-crystalline Semiconductors in Optoelectronics was held from 15 to 17 October 1996 in Chisinau. republic of Moldova and was devoted to the problems of non-crystalline semiconducting materials. The reports covered two mjlin topics: theoretical basis of physics of non -crystalline materials and experimental results. In the framework of these major topics there were treated many subjects. concerning the physics of non-crystalline semiconductors and their specific application: -optical properties of non-crystalline semiconductors; -doping of glassy semiconductors and photoinduced effects in chalcogenide glasses and their application for practical purposes; -methods for investigation of the structure in non-crystalline semiconductors -new glassy materials for IR trasmittance and optoelectronics. Reports and communications were presented on various aspects of the theory. new physical principles. studies of the atomic structure. search and development of optoelectronics devices. Special attention was paid to the actual subject of photoinduced transformations and its applications. Experimental investigations covered a rather wide spectrum of materials and physical phenomena. As a novel item it is worth to mention the study of nonlinear optical effects in amorphous semiconducting films. The third order optical non linearities. fast photoinduced optical absorption and refraction. acusto-optic effects recently discovered in non-crystalline semiconductors could potentially be utilised for optical signal processing. The important problems of photoinduced structural transformations and related phenomena. which are very attractive and actual both from the scientific and practical points of view. received much attention in discussions at the conference.

The automatic generation of parallel code from high level sequential description is of key importance to the wide spread use of high performance machine architectures. This text considers (in detail) the theory and practical realization of automatic mapping of algorithms generated from systems of uniform recurrence equations (do-lccps) onto fixed size architectures with defined communication primitives. Experimental results of the mapping scheme and its implementation are given.