This book contains most, but regrettably not all, the papers that were presented at The Advanced Research Workshop, held July 1-5, 1997, at Smolenice Castle, Slovak Republic. The problem of angular divergence is of great importance in quantum electronics: low divergence is required not only in most of practical laser applications, but also for achieving high efficiency of parametric laser frequency conversion, and harmonic generation. The large volume of available studies aimed at improving the pump systems and the spectroscopic properties of lasing media, brought about no more than 2-3 fold...

Material science is one of the most evolving fields of human activities. Invention and consequent introduction of new materials for practical and/or technological purposes requires as complete knowledge of the physical, chemical, and structural properties as possible to ensure proper and optimal usage of their new features. In order to understand the macroscopic behaviour, one has to search for their origin on a microscopic level. A good deal of microscopic information can be obtained through hyperfine interactions. Mossbauer spectroscopy offers a unique possibility for hyperfine interaction...

A comprehensive assessment of the methodologies of thermodynamic optimization, exergy analysis and thermoeconomics, and their application to the design of efficient and environmentally sound energy systems. The chapters are organized in a sequence that begins with pure thermodynamics and progresses towards the blending of thermodynamics with other disciplines, such as heat transfer and cost accounting. Three methods of analysis stand out: entropy generation minimization, exergy (or availability) analysis, and thermoeconomics.
The book reviews current directions in a field that is both...

A broad introduction to high T_c superconductors, their parent compounds and related novel materials, covering both fundamental questions of modern solid state physics (such as correlation effects, fluctuations, unconventional symmetry of superconducting order parameter) and applied problems related to short coherence length, grain boundaries and thin films. The information that can be derived from electron spectroscopy and optical measurements is illustrated and explained in detail. Descriptions widely employ the clear, relatively simple, phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau model of...

The discovery of high temperature superconductivity in 1986 stimulated an enormous research activity around the world in physics, chemistry as well as in materials science. The synthesis, the analysis and the understanding of superconducting Cu-based mixed oxides are difficult scientific challenges. Moreover, the fabrication of superconducting ceramics and of thin films and devices poses new technological problems. Actually, the complexity of these materials is one of the main reasons of their relatively slow appearence on the world market. A successful research in the field of High-Tc...

Material science is one of the most evolving fields of human activities. Invention and consequent introduction of new materials for practical and/or technological purposes requires as complete knowledge of the physical, chemical, and structural properties as possible to ensure proper and optimal usage of their new features. In order to understand the macroscopic behaviour, one has to search for their origin on a microscopic level. A good deal of microscopic information can be obtained through hyperfine interactions. Mossbauer spectroscopy offers a unique possibility for hyperfine interaction...

An extrapolation of ULSI scaling trends indicates that minimum feature sizes below 0.1 mu and gate thicknesses of Audience: Both expert scientists and engineers who wish to keep up with cutting edge research, and new students who wish to learn more about the exciting basic research issues relevant to next-generation device technology.

Environmental stresses represent the most limiting factors for agricultural productivity worldwide. These stresses impact not only current crop species, they are also significant barriers to the introduction of crop plants into areas that are not currently being used for agriculture. Stresses associated with temperature, salinity and drought, singly or in combination, are likely to enhance the severity of problems to which plants will be exposed in the coming decades.
The present book brings together contributions from many laboratories around the world to discuss and compare our...

The Workshop Heterostructure Epitaxy and Devices HEAD'97 was held from October 12 to 16, 1997 at Smolenice Castle, the House of Scientists of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and was co-organized by the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava and the Institute of Thin Film and Ion Technology, Research Centre, liilich. It was the third in a series of workshops devoted to topics related to heterostructure epitaxy and devices and the second included into the category of Advanced Research Workshops (ARW) under sponsorship of the NATO. More than 70 participants...

A collection of original contributions by researchers who work at the forefront of a new field, lying at the intersection of computer vision and computer graphics. Several original approaches are presented to the integration of computer vision and graphics techniques to aid in the realistic modelling of objects and scenes, interactive computer graphics, augmented reality, and virtual studios. Numerous applications are also discussed, including urban and archaeological site modelling, modelling dressed humans, medical visualisation, figure and facial animation, real-time 3D teleimmersion...