This volume on the novelties in the electronic properties of solids appears in occasion of Franco Bassani sixtieth birthday, and is dedicated to honour a scientific activity which has contributed so much of the development of this very active area of research. It is re markable that this book can cover so large a part of the current research on electronic properties of solids by contributions from Bassani's former students, collaborators at different stages of his scientific life, and physicists from all over the world who have been in close scientific relationship with him. A personal flavour therefore accompanies a number of the papers of this volume, which are both up-to-date reports on present research and original recollections of the early events of modern solid state physics. The volume begins with a few contributions dealing with theoretical procedures for electronic energy levels, a primary step toward the interpretation of structural and optical properties of extended and confined systems. Other papers concern the interacting state of electrons with light (polaritons) and the effect of the coupling of electrons with lattice vibrations, with emphasis on the thermal behaviour of the electron levels and on such experimental procedures as piezospectroscopy. Electron-lattice interaction in external magnetic field and transport-related properties due to high light excitation are also con sidered. The impact of synchroton radiation on condensed matter spectroscopy is dis cussed in a topical contribution, and optical measurements are presented for extended and impurity levels.

Inhalt
Optical and Transport Properties.- Theory of bands, bonds, and optical properties of semiconductors.- Atomic pseudo-Hamiltonians for Quantum Monte Carlo.- On the electronic and structural properties of small clusters.- ABC theory vs. ABC free theory of exciton polariton.- Temperature dependence of the band structure of semiconductors: electron-phonon interaction.- Piezospectroscopy: electronic states and phonons in semiconductors and insulators.- Polaronic effects on free and harmonically bound electrons in magnetic field.- Spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation.- Theoretical studies of the transient response of highly photoexcited carriers in semiconductors.- Optical spectroscopy in transition-metal dichalcogenides.- Lifetime measurements of KBr:Tl+ by a multifrequency phase fluorometer.- Excitons, Correlations and Collective Phenomena.- Exciton interactions. Interaction between bound excitons and impurities as well as between bound excitons.- Exciton interactions. Interactions of free excitons.- The spectral manifestation of weakly coupled mixed states of excitons and lattice deformation.- Two-particle Coulomb systems in a magnetic field.- A simple approach for estimating Auger decay rates and resonances energies in molecules.- Ordering transitions induced by Coulomb interactions.- Pinned charge density waves as models of glassy behavior.- Renormalized Boltzmann equation and Fermi liquid theory for strongly disordered electron systems.- Nonlinear Optics.- Nonlinear magnetooptics in solids.- Dynamics of the coherent and noncoherent nonlinear susceptibility in CuCl.- Multiphoton spectroscopy in direct and indirect gap materials.- Superconductivity.- Superconductivity energy gaps in the high-Tc layered cuprates.- Photoemission studies of YBa2Cu3O7 and related high temperature superconductors.- Understanding the oxide superconductors.- Surfaces, quantum wells and superlattices.- Optical properties of semiconductors surfaces.- Plasmons of a single graphite layer floating on a metal surface.- Electronic states in semiconductor superlattices and quantum wells.- Electronic states and optical transitions in quantum wells.- A self energy approach for optical transition energies in semiconductors and superlattices.- Three-wave mixing via subband levels in inversion layers and in quantum wells.- Electronic spectra of solids, impurities and superstructures with the recursion and renormalization methods.- Core excitons in strained-layer superlattices.- Quantum harmonic oscillator in a magnetic field: an example of holomorphic representation.