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Few fields have made as much progress in the past decade as the one covered
by Semiconductor Lasers: Past, Present, and Future (edited by Govind P.
Agrawal, AIP Press, Woodbury, New York, $75/£58, ISBN 1 56 3962
11 X; distributed in UK by Oxford University Press). Ten years ago, some
topics that now rate whole chapters essentially did not exist – including
semiconductor lasers that emit visible light, generate light perpendicular to
the chip plane, or are made of compounds such as zinc selenide. There’s plenty
to surprise and impress anyone who hasn’t been following the semiconductor
laser field intently. Indeed, so much has happened lately that the “past”
mentioned in the subtitle has largely been squeezed out of the book. But since
the pace of progress is not slowing, in a couple of years many of today’s new
developments will themselves have faded into the past.