edited by Kikuo Cho (Osaka University, Japan) & Atsuo Matsui (Organo-Optic Research Laboratory, Japan)

At Yamada Conference LIII, papers on many novel materials and on novel phenomena in condensed matter physics were presented — for instance, the achievement of simultaneous creation of excitons and free-electron-hole pairs in rare gas solids, and a low frequency fluctuation of the spectral shift of indirect excitons in GaAs coupled quantum wells. Single molecule spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying molecules including biological systems; the study of delocalization of excitons in the photosynthetic light harvesting antenna system was also reported. The proceedings thus contain many excellent papers dealing with current research topics on the excitonic processes in bulk, quantum wells, quantum dots and other confined systems. This book will serve as an excellent source of recent references and reviews for a wide range of researchers in physics, chemistry, engineering and biological sciences.

The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:

• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)

• Dynamical Process of Photoionization in Semiconductor Nanocrystals (M Y Shen et al.)
• Excitons on a 1D Periodic Conjugated Polymer Chain: Two Electronic Structures of Polydiacetylene Chains (C Lapersonne-Meyer)
• Anomalous Spectral Shifts of Indirect Excitons in Coupled GaAs Quantum Wells (D W Snoke et al.)
• Infrared Absorption by Excitons in Cuprous Oxide (M Göppert et al.)
• Theory of Excitation-Energy Transfer Processes Involving Optically Forbidden Exciton States in Antenna Systems of Photosynthesis (K Mukai et al.)
• Transient Grating Induced by Excitonic Polaritons in Thin Film Semiconductors (K Akiyama et al.)
• Excitonic Photoluminescence of Pentacene Single Crystal (T Aoki-Matsumoto et al.)
• Scanning Near-Field Optical Microspectroscopy of Single Perylene Microcrystals (J Niitsuma et al.)
• and other papers