This book presents the latest advancements in the study of phonons and acoustic metamaterials. Chapters address such topics as modeling theories aimed at characterizing coupled modes and dispersion curves, acoustic radiation, nonlinear phenomena, thermodynamics, antiferromagnets, acoustic black holes, and track structures. The book compiles significant contributions from esteemed international researchers, offering an excellent survey of new perspectives on phonons.
Next-generation energy sources are crucial for combating the world’s energy crisis. One such alternative energy source is thermoelectricity, which is cost-efficient and environmentally friendly. This book presents a comprehensive overview of the progress made in thermoelectrics over the past few years with a focus on charge and heat carrier transport from both theoretical and experimental viewpoints. It also presents new strategies to improve thermoelectricity and discusses device physics and applications to guide the research community.
This book provides a detailed overview of recent advances in the captivating world of quantum dots and outlines some possible imminent new directions for this important field. A variety of advanced techniques is rapidly developing in the application of quantum dots to solar photovoltaics, LEDs, quantum computing (qubits) and different biological spheres. The book presents, discusses and compares devices based on state-of-the-art structures, incipient material and new physical effects. Improved efficiency and reliability in these fields are already pointing the way to next-generation devices, especially in the nano regime. This book is addressed to students and scientists working in the field of quantum dots and progressive technologies.
Density Functional Theory (DFT) is a powerful technique for calculating and comprehending the molecular and electrical structure of atoms, molecules, clusters, and solids. Its use is based not only on the capacity to calculate the molecular characteristics of the species of interest but also on the provision of interesting concepts that aid in a better understanding of the chemical reactivity of the systems under study. This book presents examples of recent advances, new perspectives, and applications of DFT for the understanding of chemical reactivity through descriptors forming the basis of Conceptual DFT as well as the application of the theory and its related computational procedures in the determination of the molecular properties of different systems of academic, social, and industrial interest.
This book is a review of photonic materials and their applications. It presents 14 chapters, that give a snapshot of the field including basic sciences (photonics, plasmonics, advanced optics, nanophotonics) and applications (renewable energy, fiber-optics, lasers and smart materials). The book starts with a summary of recent developments in photonic crystal (PC) applications. This introduction is followed by chapters that present design concepts and investigations of PC devices such as: - All-optical XOR gates using 2D photonic crystals - One-dimensional PCs containing germanium (Ge). - Graphene surface plasmonics - Nanophotonics and fiber-optic lasers - Chalcogenides - Bragg Fibers and more The broad range of topics make this an informative source on current and exciting photonics research, and the variety of photonic materials. It serves as a reference for graduate scholars (in physics and materials science) and allied researchers who have a keen interest in photonics.
This book presents recent research results on the illustrious verge of polaron science, which is broadly applied in condensed matter physics, solid state physics, and chemistry fields. It covers the modern progress of the polaron effect in various classes of materials. This book provides a thorough overview of the recent advancements in the polarons arena, and presents several active forms of guidance of scrutiny developed by well-known researchers. It describes interesting topics related to the new physical phenomena, experimental results, and applications of polarons. The scope includes both theoretical models and experimental works on different aspects of polarons, manifesting in conducting polymers, functionalized nanowires, glasses and their nanocomposites, organic semiconductors, semiconducting nanostructures, manganites, ferrites, transition metal oxides, high-temperature superconductors, colossal magnetoresistance oxides, and magnetic semiconductors. A collective of authoritative research articles provide recent achievements of theoretical models and experimental realizations of polaron properties in solid state physics and chemistry. They involve substantial research varying from single polaron phenomena to multi-polarons problems in advanced materials. This book will be beneficial as a reference to support an inclusive perspective of the polaron phenomena in advanced materials and will be of prodigious significance to a broad range of researchers in condensed matter physics and material sciences.
Biophoton emission now belongs to a topical field of modern science: It concerns a weak light emision from biological systems. Such molecular events are clearly compatible with collective phenomena as shown by recent developments in the life sciences such as the chaos theory. This book is concerned with the ?optical window? of biological interactions and in view of their correlations to many biological functions they provide a powerful, non-invasive tool of analysing biological systems. Topics include food science, pollution, efficacy of drugs including the treatment of cancer and immune diseases, and communication phenomena such as consciousness.The collection of articles in this book covers the historical background, the physics of biophoton emission, those biological phenomena which show evidence of a ?holistic? character, and finally discusses applications and biological evolution. This volume serves to bring researchers up-to-date on the subject and draws attention to the many exciting findings that are widely scattered in the scientific literature.
This book on liquid crystals reports on the new perspectives that have been brought about by the recent expansion of frontiers and overhaul of common beliefs. First, it explores the interaction of light with mesophases, when the light or matter is endowed with topological defects. It goes on to show how electrophoresis, electro-osmosis and the swimming of flagellated bacteria are affected by the anisotropic properties of liquid crystals. It also reports on the recent progress in the understanding of thermomechanical and thermohydrodynamical effects in cholesterics and deformed nematics and refutes the common belief that these effects could explain Lehmann’s observations of the rotation of cholesteric droplets subjected to a temperature gradient. It then studies the physics of the dowser texture, which has remarkable properties. This is of particular interest in regards to nematic monopoles, which can easily be generated, set into motion and collided within it. Finally, this book deals with the spontaneous emergence of chirality in nematics made of achiral molecules, and provides a brief historical context of chirality
This book focuses on the theory of phonon interactions in nanoscale structures with particular emphasis on modern electronic and optoelectronic devices. The continuing progress in the fabrication of semiconductor nanostructures with lower dimensional features has led to devices with enhanced functionality and even novel devices with new operating principles. The critical role of phonon effects in such semiconductor devices is well known. There is therefore a great need for a greater awareness and understanding of confined phonon effects. A key goal of this book is to describe tractable models of confined phonons and how these are applied to calculations of basic properties and phenomena of semiconductor heterostructures. The level of presentation is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in physics and engineering with some background in quantum mechanics and solid state physics or devices. A basic understanding of electromagnetism and classical acoustics is assumed.
