Semiconductors for Optoelectronics, 1st ed. 2021 Basics and Applications Graduate Texts in Physics Series

This book provides in-depth knowledge about the fundamental physical properties of bulk and low dimensional semiconductors (LDS). It  also explains their applications to optoelectronic devices. The book incorporates two major themes. The first theme, starts from the fundamental principles governing the classification of solids according to their electronic properties and leads to a detailed analysis of electronic band structure and electronic transport in solids. It then focuses on the electronic transport and optical properties of semiconductor compounds, size quantization and the analysis of abrupt p-n junctions where a full analysis of the fundamental properties of intrinsic and doped semiconductors is given. The second theme is device-oriented. It  aims to provide the reader with understanding of the design, fabrication and operation of optoelectronic devices based on novel semiconductor materials, such as high-speed photo detectors, light emitting diodes, multi-mode and single-mode lasers and high efficiency solar cells. The book appeals to researchers and high-level undergraduate students.

Naci Balkan was in semiconductor research from 1975, when he started his PhD at the University of Glasgow to his death on June 26, 2015. At the time of his PhD, his main interest was in the field of amorphous semiconductors, in particular, Ge and Si grown with thermal evaporation or RF sputtering. He continued with research in amorphous semiconductors until 1983 and published widely on low frequency AC loss in amorphous Si and Ge. Between 1980 and 1983, he worked as a lecturer at Hacettepe, and Bogazici universities in Turkey. He joined the semiconductors group at Essex as a senior research officer in 1984, where his research interests moved to hot-electron transport, optical spectroscopy and instabilities in low dimensional III-V material systems such as GaAs/ GaAlAs and GaInAs/GaAs quantum wells. In 1990, he became a lecturer and established his own research group in semiconductor materials and devices. The application of hot-electrons in optoelectronic devices became the focal point of his interest. This research led to the discovery of hot-electron vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (HELLISH - VCSEL) and top-hat HELLISH for wavelength conversion and optical amplification. He was also engaged in the study of novel material systems for applications in optoelectronic devices, including GaN, GaInAsN, and GaInAsP, GaBiN  for displays, lasers and solar cells.. He published over 200 research papers and book chapters, edited and co-edited special issue scientific journals, four reference books and co-authored a text book and a popular science book.