Collective Excitations in Solids

This book is based on the NATO Advanced Study Institute on ''Collective Excitations in Solids'' held in Italy in 1981. The objective of the Institute was to formulate a unified and coherent treatment of various collective excitation processes by drawing on the current advances in various branches of the physics of the solid state. Topics include the quantum mechanical description of solids; an introduction to collective excitations in solids; quasi-particles and excitons (models of structure and correlation); coherent wavepackets of phonons; an introduction to exciton physics; excitons in semiconductors; excitons in insulators; inelastic scattering of fast particles by plasmons; from magnons to solitons; quasiparticles in magnetic metals; polaritons; polarons; surface collective excitations; collective excitations in concentrated Mn/sup 2 +/ systems (spectral properties); optical dynamics in concentrated Mn/sup 2 +/ systems; spectroscopy of stoichiometric laser materials (excitons or incoherent transfers.); exciton-hole droplets in semiconductors; excitons and plasmons (collective excitations in semiconductors); picosecond exciton phenomena in chlorophyll complexes; and present trends in collective excitations in solids.