Electronic materials offer the basis for contemporary massive production of high technology devices, whose market is to be found among the first places, worldwide, in terms of the whole volume of manufactured and traded supplies. In particular, during the last decades, there has been an enormous progress for the range of available material resources and for their application in industry such as computers, semiconductors, data storage, and electronic sensors and actuators. Consequently, the related production and manufacturing technologies have been continuously increased. As an example, the rate of progress in magnetic recording is accelerating so that data storage densities, since 1994, have been increasing at a rate of more than 100 % per year.

This volume tackles the task of providing the essential knowledge, with educational intent, of the electronic properties of materials and their application in electronic apparatuses. The author, in the foreword for the students, wisely affirms: "it has been my experience that the majority of students do not benefit greatly from being confronted with a mass of detailed results arising from the mass of theory of electrons in solids." Thus the chosen strategy for the writing was to present key results based on relatively simple models: a general overview of the behaviour of electrons in materials and their contribution to the observed microscopic and macroscopic properties is offered. Deeper knowledge of quantum theory is expected to come later, for the intending specialists.

The focus is on the electrical, optical, magnetic, and thermal properties, but general topics such as crystallography, atomic bonding, and energy band diagrams, as well as the properties of atoms and conduction electrons in materials, are widely treated with a classical approach. The book is divided into three sections, each containing five chapters.

Part I, Fundamentals of electrons in materials, outlines the physics relevant to the areas under discussion. It starts with a discussion of a few electrons subjected to an electrostatic potential, spanning the bulk properties of materials and the macroscopic phenomena associated to the behaviour of the electrons in solid state. The relationships between the various properties are analysed; introductory theoretical models centered onto energy bands in solids are explained.

In Part II, Properties of materials, the discussion focuses on functional performance while providing a broad description of the electronic properties. Again, attention is principally dedicated to the materials' thermal, electrical, optical and magnetic properties, specifically looking at the behaviour of metals and semiconductors. It is interesting to note the historical development of the subjects treated, through a number of chronological references offered in this section.

Part III, Applications of Electronic Materials, looks at materials for microelectronics and discusses key applications and the suitability of electronic materials in industry. The examined areas include semiconductors, opto-electronics (electronic materials with optical functions), superconductivity, magnetic recording, piezoelectricity, sensors, actuators, and transducers.

All in all, the book successfully provides a basic understanding of the most important electronic properties in the solid state. It shows, soundly, how these are technologically applied with an eye at real life situations. It is noticeable that the chapters in Sections I and II contain a number of exercises for the students to attempt, whose completed worked solutions are given in the last 50 pages of the book.

There are formulas throughout the text, but the reading is not challenging as the author develop ideas starting at a basic level. A background in physics and solid-state chemistry is necessary to the reader, together with some knowledge in electro-techniques. The book will represent a useful desk reference for those teaching and studying materials science and solid-state physics. Graduating electrical engineers and materials scientists, in particular, will find the information useful.

Enzo Ferrara, ferrara@ien.it,
Materials Department,
Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale Galileo Ferraris,
Strada Delle Cacce,
91 - 10135 Torino, Italy.