In recent years the field of semiconductor optics has been pushed to several extremes. The size of semiconductor structures has shrunk to dimensions of a few nanometers, the semiconductor-light interaction is studied on timescales as fast as a few femtoseconds, and transport properties on a length scale far below the wavelength of light have been revealed. These advances were driven by rapid improvements in both semiconductor and optical technologies and were further facilitated by progress in the theoretical description of optical excitations in semiconductors. This book, written by leading experts in the field, provides an up-to-date introduction to the optics of semiconductors and their nanostructures so as to help the reader understand these exciting new developments. It also discusses recently established applications, such as blue-light emitters, as well as the quest for future applications in areas such as spintronics, quantum information processing, and third-generation solar cells.

Excitons in Semiconductors.- Hot Excitons in ZnSe Quantum Wells.- Probing Localized Excitons by Speckle Analysis of Resonant Light Scattering.- Donor-Related Exciton Luminescence in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors: Diamond, Zinc Oxide, and Gallium Nitride.- Spectroscopy of Biexcitons and Trions in II¿VI Quantum Dots.- Dynamics of Excitons and Exciton Complexes in Wide-Gap Semiconductors.- Quantum Kinetics and Femtosecond Spectroscopy ¿ The Discovery of Slowness.- Extreme Nonlinear Optics in Semiconductors.- Nonlinear Semiconductor Microcavities.- All-Optical Control of Charge and Spin in GaAs: Densities and Currents.- Semiconductor Quantum Dots for Optoelectronic Applications.- GaInNAs: Fundamentals of a New Material System for Near-Infrared Optoelectronics.- Nitride-Based Light Emitting Diodes and Laser Diodes: Optical Properties and Applications.- Thermodynamics of Solar Cells.