Book excerpt: Since Volume 1 was published in 1982, the centres of interest in the basic physics of semiconductors have shifted. Volume 1 was called Band Theory and Transport Properties in the first edition, but the subject has broadened to such an extent that Basic Properties is now a more suitable title. Seven chapters have been rewritten by the original authors. However, twelve chapters are essentially new, with the bulk of this work being devoted to important current topics which give this volume an almost encyclopaedic form. The first three chapters discuss various aspects of modern band theory and the next two analyze impurities in semiconductors. Then follow chapters on semiconductor statistics and on surfaces, interfaces and band offsets as they occur in heterojunctions. Chapters 8 to 19 report on newer topics (though a survey of transport properties of carriers is also included). Among these are transport of hot electrons, and thermoelectric effects including here and elsewhere properties of low-dimensional and mesoscopic structures. The electron-hole liquid, the quantum Hall effect, localisation, ballistic transport, coherence in superlattices, current ideas on tunnelling and on quantum confinement and scattering processes are also covered.