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 gives the first systematic and complete survey of technology and application of amorphous silicon, a material with a huge potential in electronic applications. The book features contributions by world-wide leading researchers in this field.

Amorphous and nanocrystalline materials are a class of their own. Their properties are quite different to those of the corresponding crystalline materials. This book gives systematic insight into their physical properties, structure, behaviour, and design for special advanced applications.

Optical Properties of Crystalline and Amorphous Semiconductors: Materials and Fundamental Principles presents an introduction to the fundamental optical properties of semiconductors. This book presents tutorial articles in the categories of materials and fundamental principles (Chapter 1), optical properties in the reststrahlen region (Chapter 2), those in the interband transition region (Chapters 3 and 4) and at or below the fundamental absorption edge (Chapter 5). Optical Properties of Crystalline and Amorphous Semiconductors: Materials and Fundamental Principles is presented in a form which could serve to teach the underlying concepts of semiconductor optical properties and their implementation. This book is an invaluable resource for device engineers, solid-state physicists, material scientists and students specializing in the fields of semiconductor physics and device engineering.

A valuable overview covering important fundamental and applicative aspects of amorphous nanomaterials! Amorphous nanomaterials are very important in non-crystalline solids, which have emerged as a new category of advanced materials. Compared to the crystalline counterpart, amorphous nanomaterials with isotropic nature always exhibit fast ion diffusion, relieved strain, and higher reactivity, enabling such materials to exhibit high performance in mechanics and catalysis, as well as other interesting properties. Amorphous Nanomaterials: Preparation, Characterization, and Applications covers the fundamental concept, synthesis, characterization, properties, and applications of nanoscaled amorphous materials. It starts with the introduction of amorphous materials, then gives a global view of the history, structure, and growth mechanism of amorphous nanomaterials. Subsequently, some powerful techniques to characterize amorphous materials, such as X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, spherical aberration electron microscope, in-situ-Transmission Electron Microscope, Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy, and some other defect characterization technologies are included. Furthermore, the emerging innovative methods to fabricate well-defined, regularshaped amorphous nanomaterials, including zero-, one-, two-, and three-dimensional amorphous nanomaterials are systematically introduced. The fascinating properties and applications related to amorphous nanomaterials including the applications in electrocatalysis, batteries, supercapacitors, photocatalysis, mechanics, etc., are presented. It will greatly help the researchers to find professional answers related to amorphous materials. Great topic: amorphous nanomaterials are a very large and important field in both academia and industry Comprehensive: in-depth discussion of various important aspects, from both a fundamental and an applied point of view, on the chemistry, physics and technological importance of the amorphous nanomaterials are presented Vitally needed: the understanding of the fundamentals of amorphous nanomaterials is a prerequisite for devising new applications of such materials Highly relevant: amorphous nanomaterials have found specific applications in chemistry, catalysis, physics, sensing, batteries, supercapacitors, and engineering Amorphous Nanomaterials is a vital resource for materials scientists, inorganic and physical chemists, solid state chemists, physicists, catalytic and analytical chemists, as well as organic chemists.

Reflecting the fast pace of research in the field, the Second Edition of Bulk Metallic Glasses has been thoroughly updated and remains essential reading on the subject. It incorporates major advances in glass forming ability, corrosion behavior, and mechanical properties. Several of the newly proposed criteria to predict the glass-forming ability of alloys have been discussed. All other areas covered in this book have been updated, with special emphasis on topics where significant advances have occurred. These include processing of hierarchical surface structures and synthesis of nanophase composites using the chemical behavior of bulk metallic glasses and the development of novel bulk metallic glasses with high-strength and high-ductility and superelastic behavior. New topics such as high-entropy bulk metallic glasses, nanoporous alloys, novel nanocrystalline alloys, and soft magnetic glassy alloys with high saturation magnetization have also been discussed. Novel applications, such as metallic glassy screw bolts, surface coatings, hyperthermia glasses, ultra-thin mirrors and pressure sensors, mobile phone casing, and degradable biomedical materials, are described. Authored by the world’s foremost experts on bulk metallic glasses, this new edition endures as an indispensable reference and continues to be a one-stop resource on all aspects of bulk metallic glasses.

Long awaited, this textbook fills the gap for convincing concepts to describe amorphous solids. Adopting a unique approach, the author develops a framework that lays the foundations for a theory of amorphousness. He unravels the scientific mysteries surrounding the topic, replacing rather vague notions of amorphous materials as disordered crystalline solids with the well-founded concept of ideal amorphous solids. A classification of amorphous materials into inorganic glasses, organic glasses, glassy metallic alloys, and thin films sets the scene for the development of the model of ideal amorphous solids, based on topology- and statistics-governed rules of three-dimensional sphere packing, which leads to structures with no short, mid or long-range order. This general model is then concretized to the description of specific compounds in the four fundamental classes of amorphous solids, as well as amorphous polyethylene and poly(methyl)methacrylate, emphasizing its versatility and descriptive power. Finally, he includes example applications to indicate the abundance of amorphous materials in modern-day technology, thus illustrating the importance of a better understanding of their structure and properties. Equally ideal as supplementary reading in courses on crystallography, mineralogy, solid state physics, and materials science where amorphous materials have played only a minor role until now.