Recent studies on two-dimensional systems have led to new insights into the fascinating interplay between physical properties and dimensionality. Many of these ideas have emerged from work on electrons bound to the surface of a weakly polarizable substrate such as liquid helium or solid hydrogen. The research on this subject continues to be at the forefront of modern condensed matter physics because of its fundamental simplicity as well as its connection to technologically useful devices.
This book is the first comprehensive overview of experimental and theoretical research in this exciting field. It is intended to provide a coherent introduction for graduate students and non-experts, while at the same time serving as a reference source for active researchers in the field. The chapters are written by individuals who made significant contributions and cover a variety of specialized topics. These include the origin of the surface states, tunneling and magneto-tunneling out of these states, the phase diagram, collective excitations, transport and magneto-transport.

Inhalt
The Surface State Electron.- The Phase Diagram.- 2D Coulomb Crystals on a Liquid Substrate.- Thermodynamic Measurement on the Melting of a Two-Dimensional Electron Solid.- Propagation of Shear in a Two-Dimensional Electron Solid.- Electron Transport on a Liquid Helium Surface.- Many-Electron Transport Phenomena in Nondegenerate 2D Electron Systems.- Magnetotransport and the Hall Effect.- Collective Excitations in High Magnetic Fields.- Nonlinear Transport of the Electron Crystal.- Escape out of the Electron Layer: Thermal Activation.- Escape out of the 2D Electron Layer: Tunneling and Magneto-Tunneling.- Polaronic and Confinement Effects for Surface Electrons on Helium.- Electrons on Helium Films.- Nonlinear Effects The Multi-electron Dimple.- Quantum Localization Effects in Non-Degenerate 2D Electron Gases.- The Ion Crystal.