Part 1 Introduction: Structural properties of silicon-germanium (SiGe) nanostructures -- Electronic band structures of SiGe alloys. Part 2 Formation of nanostructures: Understanding crystal growth mechanisms in SiGe nanostructures -- Types of SiGe bulk crystal growth methods and their applications -- SiGe crystal growth using molecular beam epitaxy -- SiGe crystal growth using chemical vapour deposition -- Strain engineering of SiGe virtual substrates -- Formation of silicon-germanium-on-insulator (SGOI)substrates -- Miscellaneous methods and materials for SiGe based heterostructures -- Modelling the evolution of germanium islands on silicon(001) thin films -- Strain engineering of SiGe micro- and nanostructures. Part 3 Material properties of SiGe nanostructures: Self-diffusion and dopant diffusion in germanium (Ge) and SiGe alloys -- Dislocations and other strain-induced defects in SiGe nanostructures -- Transport properties of SiGe nanostructures at low temperatures -- Transport properties of SiGe nanostructures and applications in devices -- Microcavities and quantum cascade laser structures based on SiGe nanostructures -- Silicide and germanide technology for interconnections in ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) applications. Part 4 Devices using Si, Ge and SiGe alloys: SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) and bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technologies -- SiGe-based field effect transistors (FET) and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technologies -- High electron mobility germanium (Ge) metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) -- Silicon (Si) and germanium (Ge) in optical devices -- Spintronics of nanostructured MnGe dilute magnetic semiconductor.