Si Silicon

Modern Synthetic and Application Aspects of Polysilanes: An Underestimated Class of Materials?, by A. Feigl, A. Bockholt, J. Weis, and B. Rieger; * Conjugated Organosilicon Materials for Organic Electronics and Photonics, by Sergei A. Ponomarenko and Stephan Kirchmeyer; * Polycarbosilanes Based on Silicon-Carbon Cyclic Monomers, by E.Sh. Finkelshtein, N.V. Ushakov, and M.L. Gringolts; * New Synthetic Strategies for Structured Silicones Using B(C6F5)3, by Michael A. Brook, John B. Grande, and François Ganachaud; * Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxanes with Controlled Structure: Formation and Application in New Si-Based Polymer Systems, by Yusuke Kawakami, Yuriko Kakihana, Akio Miyazato, Seiji Tateyama, and Md. Asadul Hoque;

A comprehensive overview of the key techniques used in the fabrication of micron-scale structures in silicon; for graduate students and researchers.

Silicon, the basic material for a multibillion-dollar industry, is the most widely researched and applied semiconductor, and its surfaces are the most thoroughly studied of all semiconductor surfaces. Silicon Surfaces and Formation of Interfaces may be used as an introduction to graduate-level physics and chemical physics. Moreover, it gives a specialized and comprehensive description of the most common faces of silicon crystals as well as their interaction with adsorbates and overlayers. This knowledge is presented in a systematic and easy-to-follow way. Discussion of each system is preceded by a brief overview which categorizes the features and physical mechanisms before the details are presented. The literature is easily available, and the references am numerous and organized in tables, allowing a search without the need to browse through the text. Though this volume focuses on a scientific understanding of physics on the atomistic and mesoscopic levels, it also highlights existing and potential links between basic research in surface science and applications in the silicon industry. It will be valuable to anyone writing a paper, thesis, or proposal in the field of silicon surfaces.

Presenting the first book to focus on the importance of silicon for plant health and soil productivity and on our current understanding of this element as it relates to agriculture.Long considered by plant physiologists as a non-essential element, or plant nutrient, silicon was the center of attention at the first international conference on Silicon in Agriculture, held in Florida in 1999. Ninety scientists, growers, and producers of silicon fertilizer from 19 countries pondered a paradox in plant biology and crop science. They considered the element Si, second only to oxygen in quantity in soils, and absorbed by many plants in amounts roughly equivalent to those of such nutrients as sulfur or magnesium. Some species, including such staples as rice, may contain this element in amounts as great as or even greater than any other inorganic constituent. Compilations of the mineral composition of plants, however, and much of the plant physiological literature largely ignore this element. The participants in Silicon in Agriculture explored that extraordinary discrepancy between the silicon content of plants and that of the plant research enterprise. The participants, all of whom are active in agricultural science, with an emphasis on crop production, presented, and were presented with, a wealth of evidence that silicon plays a multitude of functions in the real world of plant life. Many soils in the humid tropics are low in plant available silicon, and the same condition holds in warm to hot humid areas elsewhere. Field experience, and experimentation even with nutrient solutions, reveals a multitude of functions of silicon in plant life. Resistance to disease is one, toleration of toxic metals such as aluminum, another. Silicon applications often minimize lodging of cereals (leaning over or even becoming prostrate), and often cause leaves to assume orientations more favorable for light interception. For some crops, rice and sugarcane in particular, spectacular yield responses to silicon application have been obtained. More recently, other crop species including orchids, daisies and yucca were reported to respond to silicon accumulation and plant growth/disease control. The culture solutions used for the hydroponic production of high-priced crops such as cucumbers and roses in many areas (The Netherlands for example) routinely included silicon, mainly for disease control. The biochemistry of silicon in plant cell walls, where most of it is located, is coming increasingly under scrutiny; the element may act as a crosslinking element between carbohydrate polymers. There is an increased conviction among scientists that the time is at hand to stop treating silicon as a plant biological nonentity. The element exists, and it matters.

Photonics is a key technology of this century. The combination of photonics and silicon technology is of great importance because of the potentiality of coupling electronics and optical functions on a single chip. Many experimental and theoretical studies have been performed to understand and design the photonic properties of silicon nanocrystals. Generation of light in silicon is a challenging perspective in the field; however, the issue of light-emitting devices does not limit the activity in the field. Research is also focused on light modulators, optical waveguides and interconnectors, optical amplifiers, detectors, memory elements, photonic crystals, etc. A particularly important task of silicon nanostructures is to generate electrical energy from solar light. Understanding the optical properties of silicon-based materials is central in designing photonic components. It is not possible to control the optical properties of nanoparticles without fundamental information on their microscopic structure, which explains a large number of theoretical works on this subject. Many fundamental and practical problems should be solved in order to develop this technology. In addition to open fundamental questions, it is even more difficult to develop the known experimental results towards practical realization. However, the world market for silicon photonics is expected to be huge; thus, more research activity in the field of silicon nanophotonics is expected in the future. This book describes different aspects of silicon nanophotonics, from fundamental issues to practical devices. The second edition is essentially different from the book published in 2008. Eight chapters of the first edition are not included in the new book, because the recent progress on those topics has not been large enough. Instead, seven new chapters appear. The other eight chapters are essentially modified to describe recent achievements in the field.

At the official dinner of a· meeting in May 1939, I was seated next to Max Hansen. When I congratulated him on the well deserved success of his "Aufbau der Zweistoff-Legierungen", he smiled: "yes, it was a struggle with the hydra, and so it has taken me seven years", meaning that whenever he had thought to have finished the phase diagram of a particular system, new evidence would turn up like the new heads of the Greek monster. There is no need to point out the importance of assessed phase diagrams to metallurgists or even anyone concerned with the technology and applica tion of metals and alloys. The information contained therein is fundamental to considerations concerning the chemical, physical and mechanical properties of alloys. Hansen's German monograph was followed by a revised English edition in 1958 with K. Anderko and the supplements by R.P. Elliott (1965) and F.A. Shunk (1969). All those who have made use of these volumes will admit that much diligent labour has gone into this work, necessary to cope with the ever increasing number of publications and the consequent improvements.

Edited by the leaders in the fi eld, with chapters from highly renowned international researchers, this is the fi rst coherent overview of the latest in silicon nanomembrane research. As such, it focuses on the fundamental and applied aspects of silicon nanomembranes, ranging from synthesis and manipulation to manufacturing, device integration and system level applications, including uses in bio-integrated electronics, three-dimensional integrated photonics, solar cells, and transient electronics. The first part describes in detail the fundamental physics and materials science involved, as well as synthetic approaches and assembly and manufacturing strategies, while the second covers the wide range of device applications and system level demonstrators already achieved, with examples taken from electronics and photonics and from biomedicine and energy.

This book gives a fascinating picture of the state-of-the-art in silicon photonics and a perspective on what can be expected in the near future. It is composed of a selected number of reviews authored by world leaders in the field and is written from both academic and industrial viewpoints. An in-depth discussion of the route towards fully integrated silicon photonics is presented. This book will be useful not only to physicists, chemists, materials scientists, and engineers but also to graduate students who are interested in the fields of microphotonics and optoelectronics.

The series Structure and Bonding publishes critical reviews on topics of research concerned with chemical structure and bonding. The scope of the series spans the entire Periodic Table and addresses structure and bonding issues associated with all of the elements. It also focuses attention on new and developing areas of modern structural and theoretical chemistry such as nanostructures, molecular electronics, designed molecular solids, surfaces, metal clusters and supramolecular structures. Physical and spectroscopic techniques used to determine, examine and model structures fall within the purview of Structure and Bonding to the extent that the focus is on the scientific results obtained and not on specialist information concerning the techniques themselves. Issues associated with the development of bonding models and generalizations that illuminate the reactivity pathways and rates of chemical processes are also relevant. The individual volumes in the series are thematic. The goal of each volume is to give the reader, whether at a university or in industry, a comprehensive overview of an area where new insights are emerging that are of interest to a larger scientific audience. Thus each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years should be presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. A description of the physical basis of the experimental techniques that have been used to provide the primary data may also be appropriate, if it has not been covered in detail elsewhere. The coverage need not be exhaustive in data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the new principles being developed that will allow the reader, who is not a specialist in the area covered, to understand the data presented. Discussion of possible future research directions in the area is welcomed. Review articles for the individual volumes are invited by the volume editors. Readership: research scientists at universities or in industry, graduate students Special offer for all customers who have a standing order to the print version of Structure and Bonding, we offer free access to the electronic volumes of the Series published in the current year via SpringerLink.

What seems routine today was not always so. The field of Si-based heterostructures rests solidly on the shoulders of materials scientists and crystal growers, those purveyors of the semiconductor “black arts” associated with the deposition of pristine films of nanoscale dimensionality onto enormous Si wafers with near infinite precision. We can now grow near-defect free, nanoscale films of Si and SiGe strained-layer epitaxy compatible with conventional high-volume silicon integrated circuit manufacturing. SiGe and Si Strained-Layer Epitaxy for Silicon Heterostructure Devices tells the materials side of the story and details the many advances in the Si-SiGe strained-layer epitaxy for device applications. Drawn from the comprehensive and well-reviewed Silicon Heterostructure Handbook, this volume defines and details the many advances in the Si/SiGe strained-layer epitaxy for device applications. Mining the talents of an international panel of experts, the book covers modern SiGe epitaxial growth techniques, epi defects and dopant diffusion in thin films, stability constraints, and electronic properties of SiGe, strained Si, and Si-C alloys. It includes appendices on topics such as the properties of Si and Ge, the generalized Moll-Ross relations, integral charge-control relations, and sample SiGe HBT compact model parameters.