This volume addresses the burgeoning field of wide band gap materials. The 64 contributed and invited papers will do much to stimulate the well-justified ongoing work, both theoretical and experimental, in this area. The high standard of the papers attests to the significant progress that has been made in this field, as well as reporting on the challenging problems that still remain to be solved.

Abbreviated. Preparation and optical properties of wide gap II-VI compounds (W. Gebhardt). Electron spin resonance studies of transition metal deep level impurities in SiC (K. Maier et al.). Interdiffusion in amorphous Si/SiC multilayers (J. Kolodzey et al.). Short-range order in hydrogenated amorphous Si-C alloys studied by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (S. Pascarelli et al.). SiC and TaC as optical materials (G.L. Harris et al.). Growth of SiC on silicon in a low pressure vertical reactor (K.G. Irvine et al.). Applications of SiC thin films in low temperature devices ( I.Y. Borisenko et al.). Electron channelling radiation: first steps towards a bright and tunable X-ray source (A. Richter). High energy ion implantation into diamond and cubic boron nitride (A.M. Zaitsev). Diamond and diamond simulants as studied by micro-Raman spectroscopy (P.V. Huong). Electron and nuclear structural characterization of natural, synthetic, homoepitaxial and polycrystalline low pressure chemically vapour-deposited diamond (H.G. Maguire et al.). Metallurgical study of SiC-NiCr plasma-sprayed coatings (F. Alonso et al.). On the fracture statistics of polycrystalline &agr;-SiC at room and high temperature (A. Charif, F. Osterstock). Epitaxial growth of diamond-like films on Si(100) by pulsed-laser evaporation of graphite (J.A. Martin-Gago et al.). Study of the growth mechanisms of amorphous carbon films by isotopic tracing methods (J. Perriére et al.). Thermal conductivity measurements of synthetic diamond films using the photothermal beam deflection technique (A.N. Petrovsky et al.). Nitrogen-containing defects in diamond: experimental data and molecular orbital linear combination of atomic orbitals (A.G. Uljashin et al.). Picosecond optical measurements of the properties of heavily carbon-implanted silicon (S.C. Moss et al.). Author index. Subject index.