Basic Semiconductor Physics

This textbook presents a detailed description of basic semiconductor physics, covering a wide range of important phenomena in semiconductors, from simple to advanced. It introduces and explains four different methods of energy band calculations in the full band region and covers fundamental topics such as the effective mass approximation and electron motion in a periodic potential, the Boltzmann transport equation, and deformation potentials used for the analysis of transport properties. The text also examines experimental and theoretical analyses of cyclotron resonance in detail and reviews essential optical and transport properties, while covering optical transitions, electron–phonon interaction, and electron mobility. It presents numerical calculations of scattering rate, relaxation time, and mobility for typical semiconductors with bulk, quantum well and HEMT structures including wideband gap materials such as GaN and SiC in addition to IV and III-V semiconductors.

The updated fourth edition includes coverage of new topics such as surface-modulated superlattices, Wannier–Stark effect, Bloch oscillation, wide band gap semiconductors, and photonic crystals. Featuring full-color diagrams calculated with updated physical parameters, as well as chapter-end problems and solutions, this tried and tested textbook on the basics of semiconductors physics is the cornerstone to any graduate or upper-level undergraduate course on the subject.

Chihiro Hamaguchi graduated from Electrical Engineering (BS) in 1961, M.S. Degree in 1963, and Graduate School of Engineering with Ph.D. Degree in 1966, all from Osaka University. He served as a research associate of Engineering Science in 1966 and an associate professor of Electronic Engineering in 1967, of Osaka University. He was a visiting research associate of Physics Department of Purdue University (USA), from 1967 to 1969. He was an appointed full professor of Electronic Engineering Department of Osaka University in 1985 and retired in 2001, awarded a professor emeritus. He was employed as an advisory board member of Sharp Corporation from 2001 till 2014 and also a visiting professor of Kochi University of Technology from 2001 till 2017. His major field of research is hot carrier transport, magnetotransport, modulation spectroscopy of quantum structures, and quantum transport in heterostructures, energy band calculations of superlattices, and nitrides, publishing more than 350 papers. He was elected as a fellow of the American Physical Society (1990), a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) (1992), a fellow of the Institute of Physics, UK (1999), and a fellow of the Japan Society of Applied Physics (2008). He received the Award of Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon” (Zuiho-Chuju Shou in Japanese) from Japanese Government and the Emperor in 2016. He published several textbooks in Japanese, such as Introduction to Electronics and Physics of Materials, Semiconductor Device Physics, and Electromagnetic Theory from basic to quantization.