Intense Terahertz Excitation of Semiconductors presents the first comprehensive treatment of high-power terahertz applications to semiconductors and low-dimensional semiconductor structures. Terahertz properties of semiconductors are in the center of scientific activities because of the need of high-speed electronics. This research monograph brigdes the gap between microwave physics and photonics. It focuses on a core topic of semiconductor physics providing a fulldescription of the state of the art of the field. The reader is introduced to new physical phenomena which occur in the terahertz frequency range at the transition from semi-classical physics with a classical field amplitude to the fully quantized limit with photons. The book covers a wide range ofoptical, optoelectronic, and nonlinear transport processes, presenting experimental results, clearly visualizing models and basic theories. Background information for future work and exhaustive references of current literature are given. A particularly valuable feature is through the discussion of various technical aspects of the terahertz range like the generation of high-power coherent radiation, optical components, instrumentation, and detection schemes of short intense radiation impulses.The book complements, for the first time in form of a monograph, previous books on infrared physics which dealt with low-power optical and opto-electronic processes. It will be useful not only to scientists but also to advanced students who are interested in terahertz research.