Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

When you look closely, Nature is nanotechnology at its finest. From a single cell, a factory all by itself, to complex systems, such as the nervous system or the human eye, each is composed of specialised nanostructures that exist to perform a specific function. This same beauty can be mirrored when we interact with the tiny physical world that is the realm of quantum mechanics.

The Wonder of Nanotechnology: Quantum Optoelectronic Devices and Applications, edited by Manijeh Razeghi, Leo Esaki and Klaus von Klitzing focuses on the application of nanotechnology to modern semiconductor optoelectronic devices. Electrons, photons and even thermal properties can all be engineered at the nanolevel. The 2D quantum well, possibly the simplest aspect of nanotechnology, has dramatically enhanced the efficiency and versatility of electronic and optoelectronic devices. While this area alone is fascinating, nanotechnology has now progressed to 1D (quantum wire) and 0D (quantum dot) systems that exhibit remarkable and sometimes unexpected behaviours. With these components serving as the modern engineer's building blocks, it is a brave new world we live in, with endless possibilities for new technology and scientific discovery.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Manijeh Razeghi received the Doctorat d'État es Sciences Physiques from the Université de Paris, France, in 1980. After heading the Exploratory Materials Lab at Thomson-CSF (France), she joined Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, as a Walter P. Murphy Professor and Director of the Center for Quantum Devices in Fall 1991, where she created the undergraduate and graduate programme in solid state engineering. She is one of the leading scientists in the field of semiconductor science and technology, pioneering the development and implementation of major modern epitaxial techniques such as MOCVD, VPE, gas MBE and MOMBE for the growth of entire compositional ranges of III-V compound semiconductors. She has authored or coauthored more than 1000 papers, more than 30 book chapters and 15 books, including the textbooks Technology of Quantum Devices, Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. (2010), Fundamentals of Solid State Engineering, 3rd Edition, Springer Science+ Business Media, Inc. (2009), and The MOCVD Challenge, 2nd Edition, CRC Press (2010), which discuss some of her pioneering work in InP-GaInAsP and GaAs-GaInAsP based systems. She holds 50 U.S. patents and has given more than 1000 invited and plenary talks. Her current research interest is in nanoscale optoelectronic quantum devices.

Leo Esaki is a Japanese physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Ivar Giaever and Brian David Josephson for his discovery of the phenomenon of electron tunneling. He is known for his invention of the Esaki diode, which exploited that phenomenon. He studied physics at the University of Tokyo where he received his B.S. in 1947 and his Ph.D. in 1959. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his research conducted around 1967 at Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (now known as Sony). He moved to the United States in 1960 and joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he became an IBM Fellow in 1967. While at IBM he pioneered the development of the semiconductor superlattice. Subsequently, he served as the President of various Japanese universities, for example, University of Tsukuba and Shibaura Institute of Technology. Since 2006, he has been serving as the President of the Yokohama College of Pharmacy. Esaki is also the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence, the Order of Culture (1974) and the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (1998).

Klaus von Klitzing is a German physicist known for discovery of the integer quantum Hall effect, for which he was awarded the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1962, von Klitzing passed the Abitur at Artland Gymnasium in Quakenbrück, Germany, before studying physics at the Braunschweig University of Technology, where he received his diploma in 1969. He continued his studies at the University of Würzburg, completing his Ph.D. thesis ""Galvanomagnetic Properties of Tellurium in Strong Magnetic Fields"" in 1972, and habilitation in 1978. This work was performed at the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford and the Grenoble High Magnetic Field Laboratory in France, where he continued to work until becoming a professor at the Technical University of Munich in 1980. Von Klitzing has been a director of the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart since 1985. Today, von Klitzing's research focuses on the properties of low-dimensional electronic systems, typically in low temperatures and in high magnetic fields.