**5. Outline of this book**

As indicated in the title of this book, it will cover the detailed aspects of germanium. In particular, it is categorized into four sections, which describe critical aspects of germanium application in each field, including this first brief introduction of germanium. In the second part, this book will describe germanium material property and production from economical and engineering perspectives. In the third part, it will discuss germanium optics applications and diffusion characteristics during the process. In the final section with two chapters, this book will describe germanium microelectronic characteristics, in particular, interface characteristics impacted by the process. The contributing authors are experts in their field with great in-depth knowledge, which is contained in this book. The authors strongly feel that this contribution might be of interest to readers and help to expand the scope of their knowledge.
