The third generation of solar cells includes those based on semiconductor quantum dots. This sophisticated technology applies nanotechnology and quantum mechanics theory to enhance the performance of ordinary solar cells. Although a practical application of quantum dot solar cells has yet to be achieved, a large number of theoretical calculations and experimental studies have confirmed the potential for meeting the requirement for ultra-high conversion efficiency. In this book, high-profile scientists have contributed tutorial chapters that outline the methods used in and the results of various quantum dot solar cell designs, including quantum dot intermediate band solar cells, hot electron quantum dot solar cells, quantum-dot sensitized solar cells, colloidal quantum dot solar cells, hybrid polymer-quantum dot solar cells, and MEG quantum dot solar cells. Both theoretical and experimental approaches are described. Quantum Dot Solar Cells helps to connect the fundamental laws of physics and the chemistry of materials with advances in device design and performance. The book can be recommended for a broad audience of chemists, electrical engineers, and materials scientists, and is suitable for use in courses on materials and device design for advanced and future optoelectronics.

This textbook delivers a comprehensive review of modern spectroscopy encompassing a plethora of various X-ray, photoelectron, optical and laser, as well as radiofrequency and microwave spectroscopic techniques. On the fundamental side, it focuses on physical principles and the impact of spectroscopy on our understanding of the building blocks of matter, while in the area of applications, particular attention is given to those in chemical analysis, photochemistry, surface characterization, environmental and medical diagnostics, remote sensing at short and long ranges, and astrophysics. It features detailed discussion of laser cooling and trapping, Bose–Einstein condensation, ultra-fast spectroscopy, high-power laser–matter interaction, spectroscopy and imaging in astronomy, and various spectroscopic aspects of laser medicine.

Statistical Methods in Quantum Optics 2 - Non-Classical Fields continues the development of the methods used in quantum optics to treat open quantum systems and their fluctuations. Its early chapters build upon the phase-space methods introduced in the first volume Statistical Methods in Quantum Optics 1 - Matter Equations and Fokker-Planck Equations: the difficulties these methods face in treating non-classical light are exposed, where the regime of large fluctuations – failure of the system size expansion – is shown to be particularly problematic. Cavity QED is adopted as a natural vehicle for extending quantum noise theory into this regime. In response to the issues raised, the theory of quantum trajectories is presented as a universal approach to the treatment of fluctuations in open quantum systems.

Shuji Nakamura's development of commercial light emitters from Gallium Nitride and related materials has recently propelled these materials into the mainstream of interest. It is very rare that a breakthrough of such proportion can be converted so quickly into successful commercial products. One factor for this success is Shuji Nakamura's hard work, another factor is Nichia's enlightened founder, Chairman and joint owner, Nobuo Ogawa without whom Nakamura probably could not have done this work, other factors are Professor Pankove's and Professor Akasaki's pioneering work. The amazing speed of GaN breakthroughs caused an information gap. There is much less information available on GaN then on silicon or GaAs, and most current semiconductor text books do not even mention Gallium Nitride. One of the aims of the present book is to close this information gap, another important aim is to provide a report on the development of Gal­ lium Nitride based light emitters and lasers and their properties. Both aims are rapidly moving targets: recent results near the end of the book even report, that InGaN lasers might become the first commercial lasers using self-assembled quantum dots.

Non-Linear Optical Properties of Matter: From Molecules to Condensed Phases attempts to draw together both theory and application in this field. As such it will be of interest to both experimentalists and theoreticians alike. Divided into two parts, Part 1 is concerned with the theory and computing of non-linear optical (NLO) properties while Part 2 reviews the latest developments in experimentation.

Focusing on nanophotonics, which has been proposed by M. Ohtsu in 1993, this volume begins with theories for operation principles of characteristic nanophotonic devices and continues with novel optical near field phenomena for fabricating nanophotonic devices. Further topics include: unique properties of optical near fields and their applications to operating nanophotonic devices; and nanophotonic information and communications systems that can overcome the integration-density limit with ultra-low-power operation as well as unique functionalities. Taken as a whole, this overview will be a valuable resource for engineers and scientists working in the field of nano-electro-optics.

This is the first volume of a set of three within the Springer Series in Optical Sciences, and is devoted to photorefractive effects, photorefractive materials, and their applications. Since the publication of our first two Springer books on Photorefractive Materials and Their Applications (Topics in Applied Physics, Vols. 61 and 62) almost 20 years ago, a lot of research has been done in this area. New and often expected effects have been discovered, theoretical models developed, known effects finally explained, and novel applications proposed. We believe that the field has now reached a high level of maturity, even if research continues in all areas mentioned above and with new discoveries arriving quite regularly. We therefore have decided to invite some of the top experts in the field to put together the state of the art in their respective fields. This after we had been encouraged to do so for more than ten years by the publisher, due to the fact that the former volumes were long out of print.

The present monograph deals with a particular class of approximation methods in the context of light scattering by small particles. This class of approximations has been termed as eikonal or soft particle approximations. The eikonal approximation was studied extensively in the potential scattering and then adopted in optical scattering problems. In this context, the eikonal and other soft particle approximations pertain to scatterers whose relative refractive index compared to surrounding medium is close to unity. The study of these approximations is very important because soft particles occur abundantly in nature. For example, the particles that occur in ocean optics, biomedical optics, atmospheric optics and in many industrial applications can be classified as soft particles. This book was written in recognition of the long-standing and current interest in the field of scattering approximations for soft particles. It should prove to be a useful addition for researchers in the field of light scattering.

A large number of modern problems in physics, chemistry, and quantum electronics require a consideration of population dynamics in complex multilevel quantum systems. The purpose of this book is to provide a systematic treatment of these questions and to present a number of exactly solvable problems. It considers the different dynamical problems frequently encountered in different areas of physics from the same perspective, based mainly on the fundamental ideas of group theory and on the idea of ensemble average. Also treated are concepts of complete quantum control and correction of decoherence induced errors that are complementary to the idea of ensemble average. Coherent Dynamics of Complex Quantum Systems is aimed at senior-level undergraduate students in the areas of atomic, molecular, and laser physics, physical chemistry, quantum optics and quantum informatics. It should help them put particular problems in these fields into a broader scientific context and thereby take advantage of the well-elaborated technique of the adjacent fields.

Physicalkineticsisthe?nalsectionofthecourseoftheoreticalphysics in its standard presentation. It stays at the boundary between g- eral theories and their applications (solid state theory, theory of gases, plasma, and so on), because the treatment of kinetic phenomena always depends on speci?c structural features of materials. On the other hand, the physical kinetics as a part of the quantum theory of macroscopic systems is far from being complete. A number of its fundamental - sues, such as the problem of irreversibility and mechanisms of chaotic responses, are now attracting considerable attention. Other important sections, for example, kinetic phenomena in disordered and/or strongly non-equilibrium systems and, in particular, phase transitions in these systems, are currently under investigation. The quantum theory of m- surements and quantum information processing actively developing in the last decade are based on the quantum kinetic theory. Because a deductive theoretical exposition of the subject is not c- venient, the authors restrict themselves to a lecture-style presentation. Now the physical kinetics seems to be at the stage of development when, according to Newton, studying examples is more instructive than lea- ing rules. In view of these circumstances, the methods of the kinetic theory are presented here not in a general form but as applications for description of speci?c systems and treatment of particular kinetic p- nomena. The quantum features of kinetic phenomena can arise for several r- sons.

Multi-Photon Quantum Interference covers the phenomena of quantum interference through the multi-photon effects of photon correlation. The author’s focus is on the temporal correlation among photons and how it influences the interference effect.

This handbook comprises a comprehensive reference source that unifies the entire fields of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, assembling the principal ideas, techniques and results of the field from atomic spectroscopy to applications to comets and global change. Its 91 chapters are written by over 100 authors, all leaders in their respective disciplines.

Elements of Quantum Optics gives a self-contained and broad coverage of the basic elements necessary to understand and carry out research in laser physics and quantum optics, including a review of basic quantum mechanics and pedagogical introductions to system-reservoir interactions and to second quantization. The text reveals the close connection between many seemingly unrelated topics, such as probe absorption, four-wave mixing, optical instabilities, resonance fluorescence and squeezing. It also comprises discussions of cavity quantum electrodynamics and atom optics. The 4th edition includes a new chapter on quantum entanglement and quantum information, as well as added discussions of the quantum beam splitter, electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light, and the input-output formalism needed to understand many problems in quantum optics. It also provides an expanded treatment of the minimum-coupling Hamiltonian and a simple derivation of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, an important gateway to research in ultracold atoms and molecules.

This textbook delivers a comprehensive review of modern spectroscopy encompassing a plethora of various X-ray, photoelectron, optical and laser, as well as radiofrequency and microwave spectroscopic techniques. On the fundamental side, it focuses on physical principles and the impact of spectroscopy on our understanding of the building blocks of matter, while in the area of applications, particular attention is given to those in chemical analysis, photochemistry, surface characterization, environmental and medical diagnostics, remote sensing at short and long ranges, and astrophysics. It features detailed discussion of laser cooling and trapping, Bose–Einstein condensation, ultra-fast spectroscopy, high-power laser–matter interaction, spectroscopy and imaging in astronomy, and various spectroscopic aspects of laser medicine.