This well-established monograph, updated and now in its eighth edition, deals mainly with electron transport in, and optical properties of semiconductors, and includes a treatment of lasers and many other quantum processes. The book is aimed primarily at students of experimental solid-state physics, and assumes only a basic knowledge of mathematics (algebra etc.). In addition to the standard fundamental topics of semiconductor physics, the book also addresses recent developments in the fields of superlattices, quantum wires and quantum dots. New diagrams and tables provide a comprehensive source of materials data. Selected problems help readers to consolidate their knowledge and invite teachers to use this text for graduate courses on semiconductor physics and physical electronics. This book has been designed primarily as a text book for a three-semester, three· hour per week senior or graduate course in semiconductor physics for students In electrical engineering and physics, It may be supplemented by a solid state phy .. ics course. Prerequisites are courses in electrodynamics and -for some of the chapters -basic quantum mechanics. Emphasis has been laid on physical rather than technological aspects. Semiconductor physics is in fact an excellent and d ... · manding training ground for a future physicist or electrical engineer givina him an opportunity to practice a large variety of physical laws he was introduced to in the more fundamental courses. A detailed treatment of the transport and optical properties of semiconducton is given. It was decided to omit the usual description of the material propertkl of certain semiconductors and instead to include the "in· between" equations In mathematical derivations which I hope will make life simpler for a non·theorell· ciano In view of the many thousands of papers which appear every y ... ar in th ... field of semiconductor physics and which are distributed amona more than 30 journals, it would have been impossible for a single person to writ ... comprehen· sive book unless there had not been some excellent review art ides on speCial top ics published in the series "Solid State Physics", "FestkOrper·Probleme! Ad· vances in Solid State Physics", "Semiconductors and Semimetals". and "Proareu in Semiconductors", and I have leaned heavily on such review articles Front Matter....Pages I-XV Elementary Properties of Semiconductors....Pages 1-8 Energy Band Structure....Pages 9-34 Semiconductor Statistics....Pages 35-50 Charge and Energy Transport in a Non-degenerate Electron Gas....Pages 51-127 Carrier Diffusion Processes....Pages 128-163 Scattering Processes in a Spherical One-Valley Model....Pages 164-233 Charge Transport and Scattering Processes in the Many-Valley Model....Pages 234-285 Carrier Transport in the Warped-Sphere Model....Pages 286-300 Quantum Effects in Transport Phenomena....Pages 301-319 Impact Ionization and Avalanche Breakdown....Pages 320-330 Optical Absorption and Reflection....Pages 331-419 Photoconductivity....Pages 420-432 Light Generation by Semiconductors....Pages 433-446 Properties of the Surface....Pages 447-457 Miscellaneous Semiconductors....Pages 458-475 Back Matter....Pages 476-514
