Smart Materials for Energy, Communications and Security

This volume is a result of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Smart Materials for Energy, Communications and Security held in Marrakech, Morocco, December 2007 in frame of the NATO - Science for Peace program. Its objective is to overview several hot topics of materials physics related with technological problems of modern society with the focus of their implementation in Mediterranean Dialogue countries: Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The articles are written by world famous experts in materials science and engineering. They review the state of art, recent achievements, possible and already implemented applications in the following fields of materials science: Materials for transmission, treatment and storage of information, multiferroic, magnetic and superconducting materials for spintronics, electrochromic and nitride-based semiconducting materials for infrared and optoelectronic devices, carbon-based terahertz electronic technologies, memory-capacious materials. Energy storage materials and photovoltaic cells Piezo and Electroactive materials for detectors, acoustic transducers and gas sensors. Functional materials for electronics, environmental security, measurement and characterisation techniques.