Book excerpt: Quantum well devices have been the objects of intensive research during the last two decades. Some of the devices have matured into commercially useful products and form part of modern electronic circuits. Some others require further dev- opment, but have the promise of being useful commercially in the near future. Study of the devices is, therefore, gradually becoming compulsory for electronics specialists. The functioning of the devices, however, involve aspects of physics which are not dealt with in the available text books on the physics of semicond- tor devices. There is, therefore, a need for a book to cover all these aspects at an introductory level. The present book has been written with the aim of meeting this need. In fact, the book grew out of introductory lectures given by the author to graduate students and researchers interested in this rapidly developing area of electron devices. The book covers the subjects of heterostructure growth techniques, band-offset theory and experiments, electron states, electron-photon interaction and related phenomena, electron transport and the operation of electronic, opto-electronic and photonic quantum well devices. The theory as well as the practical aspects of the devices are discussed at length. The aim of the book is to provide a comprehensive treatment of the physics underlying the various devices. A reader after going through the book should find himself equipped to deal with all kinds of quantum well devices.