Book excerpt: Silicides were introduced into the technology of electronic devices some thirty years ago; since then, they have been continuously used to form both ohmic and rectifying contacts to silicon. Silicides are also important for other applications (thermoelectric devices and structural applications, such as jet engines), but it is not easy to find an updated reference containing both their basic properties, either chemical or physical, and the latest applications.The 16th Course of the International School of Solid State Physics, held in Erice (Italy) in the late spring of 1999, was intended to break artificial barriers between disciplines, and to gather people concerned with the properties and applications of silicides, regardless of the formal fields to which they belong, or of the practical goals they pursue. This book is therefore concerned with theory as well as applications, metallurgy as well as physics, and materials science as well as microelectronics.