Photoelectronic properties of semiconductors

The interaction between light and electrons in semiconductors forms the basis for many interesting and practically significant properties. This book examines the fundamental physics underlying this rich complexity of photo-electronic properties of semiconductors, and will familiarize the reader with the relatively simple models that are useful in describing these fundamentals. The basic physics is also illustrated with typical recent examples of experimental data and observations. Following introductory material on the basic concepts, the book moves on to consider a wide range of phenomena, including photo-conductivity, recombination effects, photo-electronic methods of defect analysis, photo-effects at grain boundaries, amorphous semiconductors, photo-voltaic effects and photo-effects in quantum wells and super-lattices. The author is Professor of Materials Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, and has taught this material for many years. He is an experienced author, his earlier books having found wide acceptance and use. This book represents, as much as any one book can, his 44 years of research to date. Readers will therefore find this volume to be an up-to-date and concise summary of the major concepts, models and results. It is intended as a text for graduate students, but will be an important resource for anyone researching in this interesting field.