chapter 1 Spin Evolution in a High-Mobility, Two-Dimensional Electron Gas -- chapter 2 High-Amplitude, Ultrashort Strain Solitons in Solids -- chapter 3 Nonlinear Optical Properties of Artificial Dielectrics in the Nano-Scale -- chapter 4 Optical Properties of Hexagonal and Cubic GaN Self-Assembled Quantum Dots -- chapter 5 Ultrafast Non-Equilibrium Electron Dynamics in Metal Nanoparticles -- chapter 6 Generation and Propagation of Monochromatic Acoustic Phonons in GalliumArsenide -- chapter 7 Optical Studies of Carrier Dynamics and Non-Equilibrium Optical Phonons in Nitride-Based Semiconductors -- chapter 8 Electromagnetically Induced Transparency in Semiconductor Quantum Wells.