Reddit reviews Semiconductor Device Fundamentals

Look no further.

This is, in my opinion, the best resource for semiconductor physics.

I'm taking ECE 103 with Tu this quarter, and we're using Semiconductor Device Fundamentals by Pierret: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201543931/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've heard that this is /the/ book to use for this class from people who've attended other schools, and I've found it pretty good at explaining things. You can rent it from Amazon for fairly cheap, and there is a PDF floating around the internet but the person who scanned it is a moron and put four pages on a single PDF page. Also, I believe Dayeh posts his notes online and they're decent, except for his handwriting being atrocious.

If you're looking for a Semiconductor Physics book then Pierret is the standard from what I've seen.

From a circuits and applications side, go read "The Art of Electronics", "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits", and all the app notes from TI, Maxim, National, and Linear.

During my engineering degree I studied semiconductors extensively. The two books I would recommend to you are Pierret for device fundamentals, and I think this is what I used for device fab. Since your lab does optoelectronics, I'll also recommend Kasap. These are all very much engineering oriented, so they are good if you're looking for a functional understanding of how these devices work.

Also, some of the solid state physics (learning about density of states, electronic structure, etc.) is probably better learned from Mermin and Ashcroft.