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Tunneling phenomena in solids
Book Reviews TUNNELING PHENOMENA M SOLIDS, edited by Elias Burstein and Stig Lundquist. 579 pages, diagrams, 6 x 9 in. New York, Plenum Press, 1969. Price, $00.00. Although the title of this volume suggests a survey of a diversity of topics ranging from atomic tunneling to Josephson junction quantum interferometry, the subject analyzed in detail by the majority of the contributors is electronic tunneling between conducting electrodes, a topic which is diverse enough to justify at least one volume of its own. The book may be divided roughly into two major topics: the first half consisting of articles on general tunneling theory and semiconductor Schottky and p-n diodes, with extensive discussion of phononassisted tunneling, and the second half devoted almost exclusively to metalinsulator-metal junctions with particular emphasis on superconducting tunneling of one type or another. A notable subset of the last classitlcation is an outstanding section of related papers, both experimental and theoretical, on the Josephson effect. Unfortunately, the material in general is organized in a haphazard fashion which emphasizes the diversity of the field at the expense of coherence and unity. Researchers in this field, particularly experimental&s, will find this collection immensely valuable, for despite the threeyear lag in its publication there is no other volume available containing a comparable wealth of insights, techniques and warnings to guide one around the manifold pitfalls of the tunneling laboratory. There are also some superb individual contributions. Many of these, such as J. R. Schrieffer’s, are available in more complete form in other volumes, but no other volume quite duplicates this as a collection. The casual reader, however, will probably derive little benefit from this book, as the lack of either logical continuity or a general review article to tie the contributions together makes it difficult to obtain an overall perspective of this multifaceted subject. This is further complicated by the narrow and subjective reference lists which have been provided by the original authors, and which usually
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neglect to cite pertinent generalized or review articles to which the reader can turn for additional information. In summary, this collection, while seriously deficient in many respects, remains relevant to active researchers in tunneling by virtue of its uniqueness, but hardly indispensable despite the attractiveness of reading a researcher’s review of his own work. Its immediate applicability to current problems, while somewhat diluted by time, is adequate and provides a good base for students or others just entering thisarea. It should not, however, be mistaken for a balanced comprehensive review of the field, nor for an instruction manual on How To Tunnel Successfully and Avoid Spurious Results. GENE I. ROCHLIN Department of Phy8ics University of California Berkeley, California CHARACTERIZATION OF SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS, by Philip F. Kane and Graydon B. Larrabee. 351 pages, diagrams, 6 x 9 in. New York, McGrawHill, 1970. Price, $18.50.
The authors of this ambitious work have intended it as a basic text for engineer8 an& techniciana; it could indeed be used for that purpose, but it will also serve as a useful reference text for a broad class of workers in the field of semiconductor physics and technology. Actually, Kane and Larrabee have gone beyond their announced subject. They have covered allied subjects, such as preparation of materials, sample fabrication and some of the elements of the theories of the physics and chemistry of semiconductors. Somewhat more than twenty years of industrial development following the invention of the transistor has left an extensive literature on the art and science of semiconductor material preparation and evaluation. Thus, it takes only a little reflection to realize that this text represents an ambitious undertaking. If one merely enumerates the chapter headings, beyond the introduction, this becomes increasingly evident : e.g. “Semiconductor principles”, “Bulk-material
Journal of
The Franklin Institute
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neglect to cite pertinent generalized or review articles to which the reader can turn for additional information. In summary, this collection, while seriously deficient in many respects, remains relevant to active researchers in tunneling by virtue of its uniqueness, but hardly indispensable despite the attractiveness of reading a researcher’s review of his own work. Its immediate applicability to current problems, while somewhat diluted by time, is adequate and provides a good base for students or others just entering thisarea. It should not, however, be mistaken for a balanced comprehensive review of the field, nor for an instruction manual on How To Tunnel Successfully and Avoid Spurious Results. GENE I. ROCHLIN Department of Phy8ics University of California Berkeley, California CHARACTERIZATION OF SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS, by Philip F. Kane and Graydon B. Larrabee. 351 pages, diagrams, 6 x 9 in. New York, McGrawHill, 1970. Price, $18.50.
The authors of this ambitious work have intended it as a basic text for engineer8 an& techniciana; it could indeed be used for that purpose, but it will also serve as a useful reference text for a broad class of workers in the field of semiconductor physics and technology. Actually, Kane and Larrabee have gone beyond their announced subject. They have covered allied subjects, such as preparation of materials, sample fabrication and some of the elements of the theories of the physics and chemistry of semiconductors. Somewhat more than twenty years of industrial development following the invention of the transistor has left an extensive literature on the art and science of semiconductor material preparation and evaluation. Thus, it takes only a little reflection to realize that this text represents an ambitious undertaking. If one merely enumerates the chapter headings, beyond the introduction, this becomes increasingly evident : e.g. “Semiconductor principles”, “Bulk-material
Journal of
The Franklin Institute