High pressures play a more and more important role in modern technology. Examples are the supercritical fluid extraction of medical drugs and dyes from biological material, the handling of compressed or liquefied gases (including natural gas or hydrogen), the operation of modern thermal power plants, or various technical processes for controlled particle formation. High-Pressure Fluid Phase Equilibria, Second Edition enables understanding of the complicated phase behaviour that fluid or fl...

The book begins with an overview of the phase diagrams of fluid mixtures (fluid = liquid, gas, or supercritical state), which can show an astonishing variety when elevated pressures are taken into account; phenomena like retrograde condensation (single and double) and azeotropy (normal and double) are discussed. It then gives an introduction into the relevant thermodynamic equations for fluid mixtures, including some that are rarely found in modern textbooks, and shows how they can they be...

Everyone is familiar with the amazing performance of a modern smartphone, powered by a billion-plus nanotransistors, each having an active region that is barely a few hundred atoms in length.These lecture notes are about a less appreciated by-product of the microelectronics revolution, namely the deeper understanding of current flow, and device operation that it has enabled, which forms the basis for a new approach to transport problems.The book assumes very little background beyond linear...

X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) is a powerful and versatile technique for studying structures of materials in chemistry, physics, biology and other fields. This textbook is a comprehensive, practical guide to carrying out and interpreting XAFS experiments. Assuming only undergraduate-level physics and mathematics, the textbook is ideally suited for graduate students in physics and chemistry starting XAFS-based research. It contains concise executable example programs in...

This book reviews up-to-date ideas of how the luminescence radiation in semiconductors originates and how to analyze it experimentally. The book fills a gap between general textbooks on optical properties of solids and specialized monographs on luminescence. It is unique in its coherent treatment of the phenomenon of luminescence from the very introductory definitions, from light emission in bulk crystalline and amorphous materials to the advanced chapters that deal with semiconductor nano...

Building up gradually from first principles, this unique introduction to modern thermodynamics integrates classical, statistical and molecular approaches and is especially designed to support students studying chemical and biochemical engineering. In addition to covering traditional problems in engineering thermodynamics in the context of biology and materials chemistry, students are also introduced to the thermodynamics of DNA, proteins, polymers and surfaces. It includes over 80 detailed...

Describing the physical properties of quantum materials near critical points with long-range many-body quantum entanglement, this book introduces readers to the basic theory of quantum phases, their phase transitions and their observable properties. This second edition begins with a new section suitable for an introductory course on quantum phase transitions, assuming no prior knowledge of quantum field theory. It also contains several new chapters to cover important recent advances, such ...

This new text surveys a series of fundamental problems in astrophysics, both analytically and computationally, for advanced students in physics and astrophysics. The contents are supported by more than 110 class-tested Mathematica® notebooks, allowing rigorous solutions to be explored in a visually engaging way. Topics covered include many classical and historically interesting problems, enabling students to appreciate the mathematical and scientific challenges that have been overcome in t...

Nano-optics is the study of optical phenomena and techniques on the nanometer scale, that is, near or beyond the diffraction limit of light. It is an emerging field of study, motivated by the rapid advance of nanoscience and nanotechnology which require adequate tools and strategies for fabrication, manipulation and characterization at this scale. In this 2006 text the authors provide a comprehensive overview of the theoretical and experimental concepts necessary to understand and work in ...

One of the few textbooks in the field, this volume deals with several aspects of the dynamics of colloids. A self-contained treatise, it fills the gap between research literature and existing books for graduate students and researchers. For readers with a background in chemistry, the first chapter contains a section on frequently used mathematical techniques, as well as statistical mechanics.Some of the topics covered include:• diffusion of free particles on the basis of the Langevin equat...

First published in 2006, this book has become the standard reference on nano-optics. Now in its second edition, the text has been thoroughly updated to take into account new developments and research directions. While the overall structure and pedagogical style of the book remain unchanged, all existing chapters have been expanded and a new chapter has been added. Adopting a broad perspective, the authors provide a detailed overview of the theoretical and experimental concepts that are nee...

It has been recognised recently that the strange features of the quantum world could be used for new information transmission or processing functions such as quantum cryptography or, more ambitiously, quantum computing. These fascinating perspectives renewed the interest in fundamental quantum properties and lead to important theoretical advances, such as quantum algorithms and quantum error correction codes. On the experimental side, remarkable advances have been achieved in quantum optic...