This classic work on the basic chemistry and solid state physics of semiconducting materials is now updated and improved with new chapters on crystalline and amorphous semiconductors. Written by two of the world's pioneering materials scientists in the development of semiconductors, this work offers in a single-volume an authoritative treatment for the learning and understanding of what makes perhaps the world's most important engineered materials actually work. Readers will find: —' The essential principles of chemical bonding, electron energy bands and their relationship to conductive and semi-conductive material behavior. —' Coverage on elastics and piezoelectric constants, lattice vibrations, charge densities, optical spectra, thermo-chemistry and other key elements of semiconductor behavior and function. —' New Chapters on crystalline semiconductor interfaces, amorphous semiconductors and crystalline/amorphous interfaces.