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Solid State Physics: Advances in Research and Applications, Vol. 50 Henry Ehrenreich and Frans Spaepen, Editors (Academic Press, San Diego, 1997) xi + 403 pages, $120.00 ISBN 0-12-607750-9 The 50th volume of a classic warrants special attention—hence this review. The first of the familiar brown volumes appeared in 1955 under the editorship of Frederick Seitz and David Turnbull, both honored by the Materials Research Society as eminent materials scientists. Indeed, the editors of this latest volume begin their preface by saying, "From its inception, this series has been devoted to solid-state physics in a very broad sense, covering much of what is currently referred to as condensed matter physics and materials science." Turnbull is a physical chemist rather than a pukka physicist; this has been a source of strength and breadth. The books are really about solid-state science in all its ramifications. Originally, about 12 volumes were planned, to appear approximately every six months. In the event, the usual gap has been about 12 months, and the series has continued steadfastly, with no changes in concept or standards, through several changes of editorship (in 1967, 1986, and 1994); Turnbull remained an editor for almost 40 years. The series' reputation is such that the most distinguished authors regard it as a privilege to undertake the very heavy labor of writing overviews for it, some at a broad-ranging and elementary level, others at an advanced, specialized level, which is a policy that was announced in the first volume and has never changed. Another consideration announced in 1955, still currently valid today, is that "it would be helpful to workers in allied fields if the results of solid-state science, pertinent to their activity, were readily available." The present volume exemplifies the elementary/advanced dichotomy. The first, short article, by Weaire and McMurry of Ireland, treats the fundamental underpinnings of the vast mass of research on the modeling of grain growth (and of Ostwald ripening also). It resolutely avoids getting bogged down in excessive details, so that the underlying assumptions emerge. David Wu (Los Alamos) offers a detailed treatment of recent developments in nucleation theory (both homogeneous and heterogeneous), following on two other treatments of this topic earlier in the Series. This one is a hardy perennial. The real heavyweight effort in this volume is a 142-page essay by two French physicists, Martin and Bellon, on "driven 66
alloys," defined as alloys "maintained in non-equilibrium conditions by some external dynamic forcing," such as sustained irradiation, fatigue, high-energy milling, and vapor-deposition. This is a masterly survey of a very wide range both of experimental facts and of theoretical analysis, at a very sophisticated level, quite a lot of it the work of the authors, and it is sure to remain the standard treatment for years to come. The last of the essays is by Kimerling and three of his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and treats
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