been corrected. More than 300 additional references, some old and many brand new, have been
included (compared to the third edition) and doi's for most of them are provided for easy retrieval.
The references have been selected to (i) cover important historical and milestone papers, (ii) direct to
reviews and topical books for further reading and (iii) give access to original literature and up-to-date
research. In Fig. 1, a histogram of the references by year is shown. Roughly four phases of semiconductor physics and technology can be seen. Before the realization of the first transistor in 1947,
only a few publications are noteworthy. Then an intense phase of understanding the physics of
semiconductors and developing semiconductor technology and devices based on bulk semiconductors
(mostly Ge, Si, GaAs) followed. At the end of the 1970s, a new era began with the advent of quantum
wells and heterostructures, and later nanostructures (nanotubes, nanowires and quantum dots) and
new materials (e.g. organic semiconductors, nitrides or graphene). Another peak develops with
emerging topics such as 2D materials, topological insulators or novel amorphous semiconductors.
I would like to thank numerous colleagues for their various contributions to this book, in
alphabetical order (if no affiliation is given, at the time at Universität Leipzig): Gabriele Benndorf,
Klaus Bente, Rolf Böttcher, Matthias Brandt, Christian Czekalla, Christof Peter Dietrich, Pablo
Esquinazi, Heiko Frenzel, Volker Gottschalch, Helena Hilmer, Axel Hoffmann (TU Berlin), Alois
Krost
y (Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg), Evgeny Krüger, Michael Lorenz, Stefan Müller,
Thomas Nobis, Rainer Pickenhain, Hans-Joachim Queisser (Max-Planck-Institut für
Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart), Bernd Rauschenbach, Bernd Rheinländer, Heidemarie Schmidt,
Mathias Schmidt, Rüdiger Schmidt-Grund, Matthias Schubert, Jan Sellmann, Oliver Stier (TU
Berlin), Chris Sturm, Florian Tendille (CNRS-CRHEA), Gerald Wagner, Eicke Weber (UC
Berkeley), Holger von Wenckstern, Michael Ziese and Gregor Zimmermann. This book has benefitted from their comments, proof reading, experimental data and graphic material. Also, numerous
helpful comments from my students on my lectures and the previous editions of this book are
gratefully acknowledged.
I am also indebted to many other colleagues, in particular to (in alphabetical order) Gerhard
Abstreiter, Zhores Alferov
y , Martin Allen, Levon Asryan, Günther Bauer, Manfred Bayer, Friedhelm
Bechstedt, Dieter Bimberg, Otto Breitenstein, Len Brillson, Fernando Briones, Immanuel Broser
y ,
Jean-Michel Chauveau, Jürgen Christen, Philippe De Mierry, Steve Durbin, Laurence Eaves, Klaus
Ellmer, Guy Feuillet, Elvira Fortunato, Ulrich Gösele
y , Alfred Forchel, Manus Hayne, Frank
Heinrichsdorff, Fritz Henneberger
y , Detlev Heitmann, Robert Heitz
y , Evamarie Hey-Hawkins, Detlef
Hommel, Evgeni Kaidashev, Eli Kapon, Nils Kirstaedter, Claus Klingshirn, Fred Koch
y , Jörg
Kotthaus, Nikolai Ledentsov, Peter Littlewood, Dave Look, Axel Lorke, Anupam Madhukar, Jan
Fig. 1 Histogram of references in this book together with simplified fits visualizing major developments
viii
Preface
included (compared to the third edition) and doi's for most of them are provided for easy retrieval.
The references have been selected to (i) cover important historical and milestone papers, (ii) direct to
reviews and topical books for further reading and (iii) give access to original literature and up-to-date
research. In Fig. 1, a histogram of the references by year is shown. Roughly four phases of semiconductor physics and technology can be seen. Before the realization of the first transistor in 1947,
only a few publications are noteworthy. Then an intense phase of understanding the physics of
semiconductors and developing semiconductor technology and devices based on bulk semiconductors
(mostly Ge, Si, GaAs) followed. At the end of the 1970s, a new era began with the advent of quantum
wells and heterostructures, and later nanostructures (nanotubes, nanowires and quantum dots) and
new materials (e.g. organic semiconductors, nitrides or graphene). Another peak develops with
emerging topics such as 2D materials, topological insulators or novel amorphous semiconductors.
I would like to thank numerous colleagues for their various contributions to this book, in
alphabetical order (if no affiliation is given, at the time at Universität Leipzig): Gabriele Benndorf,
Klaus Bente, Rolf Böttcher, Matthias Brandt, Christian Czekalla, Christof Peter Dietrich, Pablo
Esquinazi, Heiko Frenzel, Volker Gottschalch, Helena Hilmer, Axel Hoffmann (TU Berlin), Alois
Krost
y (Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg), Evgeny Krüger, Michael Lorenz, Stefan Müller,
Thomas Nobis, Rainer Pickenhain, Hans-Joachim Queisser (Max-Planck-Institut für
Festkörperforschung, Stuttgart), Bernd Rauschenbach, Bernd Rheinländer, Heidemarie Schmidt,
Mathias Schmidt, Rüdiger Schmidt-Grund, Matthias Schubert, Jan Sellmann, Oliver Stier (TU
Berlin), Chris Sturm, Florian Tendille (CNRS-CRHEA), Gerald Wagner, Eicke Weber (UC
Berkeley), Holger von Wenckstern, Michael Ziese and Gregor Zimmermann. This book has benefitted from their comments, proof reading, experimental data and graphic material. Also, numerous
helpful comments from my students on my lectures and the previous editions of this book are
gratefully acknowledged.
I am also indebted to many other colleagues, in particular to (in alphabetical order) Gerhard
Abstreiter, Zhores Alferov
y , Martin Allen, Levon Asryan, Günther Bauer, Manfred Bayer, Friedhelm
Bechstedt, Dieter Bimberg, Otto Breitenstein, Len Brillson, Fernando Briones, Immanuel Broser
y ,
Jean-Michel Chauveau, Jürgen Christen, Philippe De Mierry, Steve Durbin, Laurence Eaves, Klaus
Ellmer, Guy Feuillet, Elvira Fortunato, Ulrich Gösele
y , Alfred Forchel, Manus Hayne, Frank
Heinrichsdorff, Fritz Henneberger
y , Detlev Heitmann, Robert Heitz
y , Evamarie Hey-Hawkins, Detlef
Hommel, Evgeni Kaidashev, Eli Kapon, Nils Kirstaedter, Claus Klingshirn, Fred Koch
y , Jörg
Kotthaus, Nikolai Ledentsov, Peter Littlewood, Dave Look, Axel Lorke, Anupam Madhukar, Jan
Fig. 1 Histogram of references in this book together with simplified fits visualizing major developments
viii
Preface