chapter 1. Modern aspects of czochralski and multicrystalline silicon crystal growth / Koichi Kakimoto and Bing Gao -- chapter 2. Growth and characterization of silicon-germanium Alloys / Ichiro Yonenaga -- chapter 3. Germanium on silicon : epitaxy and applications / Daniel Chrastina -- chapter 4. Self-interstitials in silicon and germanium / Alexandra Carvalho and Robert Jones -- chapter 5. Vacancies in Si and Ge / Eiji Kamiyama, Koji Sueoka, and Jan Vanhellemont -- chapter 6. Self- and dopant diffusion in silicon, germanium, and their alloys / Hartmut Bracht -- chapter 7. Hydrogen in Si and Ge / Stefan K. Estreicher, Michael Stavola, and Jorg Weber -- chapter 8. Point defect complexes in silicon / Edouard V. Monakhov and Bengt G. Svensson -- chapter 9. Defect delineation in silicon materials by chemical etching techniques / Bernd O. Kolbesen -- chapter 10. Investigation of defects and impurities in silicon by infrared and photoluminescence spectroscopies / Simona Binetti and Adele Sassella -- chapter 11. Device operation as crystal quality probe / Erich Kasper and Wogong Zhang -- chapter 12. Silicon and germanium nanocrystals / Corrado Spinella and Salvo Mirabella.