Activity of the department is focused on the characterization of materials and structures destined for use in optoelectronics and microelectronics. Major attention has been paid to III-V materials, binaries GaP, InP, GaAs and GaSb, ternaries InGaP, AlGaAs and quaternary InGaAsP. Some other materials like semiconductors Si, CdTe, CdZnTe or chalcogen glasses have been also investigated. Main areas of research include ionization processes of sputtered particles during ion bombardment of semiconductor surfaces, deep level impurities and point defects introduced into semiconductors, radiative and non-radiative processes in semiconductors, charge transport effects in semiconductors and theoretical investigation of 1D and 2D photonic crystals.