Book excerpt: As we delve more deeply into the physics and chemistry of functional materials and processes, we are inexorably driven to the nanoscale. And nowhere is the development of instrumentation and associated techniques more important to scientific progress than in the area of nanoscience. The dramatic expansion of efforts to peer into nanoscale materials and processes has made it critical to capture and summarize the cutting-edge instrumentation and techniques that have become indispensable for scientific investigation in this arena. This Handbook is a key resource developed for scientists, engineers and advanced graduate students in which eminent scientists present the forefront of instrumentation and techniques for the study of structural, optical and electronic properties of semiconductor nanostructures.