Nonlinear Spatio-Temporal Dynamics and Chaos in Semiconductors

Description

Nonlinear transport phenomena are an increasingly important aspect of modern semiconductor research. Nonlinear Spatio-Temporal Dynamics and Chaos in Semiconductors deals with complex nonlinear dynamics, pattern formation, and chaotic behaviour in such systems. In doing so it bridges the gap between two well-established fields: the theory of dynamic systems, and nonlinear charge transport in semiconductors. This unified approach is used to consider important electronic transport instabilities. The initial chapters lay a general framework for the theoretical description of nonlinear self-organized spatio-temporal patterns, like current filaments, field domains, fronts, and analysis of their stability. Later chapters consider important model systems in detail: impact ionization induced impurity breakdown, Hall instabilities, superlattices, and low-dimensional structures. State-of-the-art results include chaos control, spatio-temporal chaos, multistability, pattern selection, activator-inhibitor kinetics, and global coupling, linking fundamental issues to electronic device applications. This book will be of great value to semiconductor physicists and nonlinear scientists alike.

Eckehard Scholl was born on February 6, 1951 in Stuttgart, Germany. He received his Diplom degree in physics (M. Sc.) from the University of Tuebingen, Germany, in 1976, the Ph. D. degree in applied mathematics from the University of Southampton, England, in 1978, and the Dr. rer. nat. degree and the veni legendi from Aachen University of Technology (RWTH Aachen), Germany, in 1981 and 1976 respectively. During 1983-1984 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan. Since 1989 he has been a Professor Theoretical Physics at the Technical University of Berlin. His research interests include the theory of nonlinear charge transport and current instabilities in semiconductors, in particular, low-dimensional structures: nonlinear spatio-temporal dynamics, chaos, and pattern formation; and electro-optical nonlinearities. Dr Scholl is the author of the book Nonequilibrium Phase Transitions in Semiconductors (1987), translated into Russian in 1991, and the coauthor of The Physics of Instabilities in Solid State Electron Devices(1992), and has recently edited a monograph Theory of Transport Properties of Semiconductor Nanostructures (1998). He has published almost 200 articles in international journals like Physical Review Letters, Physical Review, Europhysics Letters, Semiconductor Science and Technology, Applied Physics Letters, Journal of Applied Physics, and many others. In 1997 he was awarded a prize as Champion of Teaching by the Technical University of Berlin.