The Prentice Hall Essence of Engineering Series provides a concise, practical and uniform introduction to the core components of an undergraduate engineering degree. Acknowledging the recent changes within Higher Education, this approach uses a variety of pedagogical tools - case studies, worked examples and self-test questions, to underpin the students learning. The Essence of Optoelectronics is written for first year undergraduates who have no prior knowledge of the subject. The emphasis is on a real understanding of the topic, and all lengthy mathematical derivations that may be very elegant but impart little real feeling for the subject have been avoided. This book provides a concise overview to all the areas covered in a one semester course. In each and every chapter the authors explain the pertinent physics with a clarity that is often lacking in other texts. A good example of this is the explanation of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. All subjects are treated with the minimal amount of mathematics and supported by informative and clear figures.