This Springer Handbook of Condensed Matter and Materials Data provides a comprehensive and precise compilation of data and functional relationships in the fields of solid state physics and materials in one volume. Explanatory texts assist to understand and use the data. Tables and diagrams as well as schematic illustrations were selected and extracted primarily from the well-established authentic data collection Landolt-Börnstein but also from other systematic data sources as well as recent publications of new physical and materials property data. Many chapters are authored by Landolt-Börnstein editors including this Springer Handbook's editors. The 2nd edition was updated and extended by chapters on nanomaterials, metals, quasicrystals, magnetic materials, materials for hydrogen storage, alloys and catalytic materials.

Hans Warlimont is a physical metallurgist and has worked on numerous topics at several research institutions and industrial companies. He graduated in physical metallurgy from the School of Mines Clausthal in 1956 and received his Ph.D. from Stuttgart University of Technology in 1959. After spending a few years as a research fellow at the U.S. Steel Corporation, USA, he became head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart. Between 1977 and 1991, he was director of research at Vacuumschmelze, Hanau before becoming scientific director of the Leibniz Institute of Solid State and Materials Research Dresden and professor of materials science at Dresden University of Technology. In 2002, Hans Warlimont founded DSL Dresden Material-Innovation where he invented and industrialized a novel technology for the galvanoforming of composite battery grids.

Werner Martienssen (1923-2010) was for many years editor-in-chief of the data collection Landolt-Börnstein, which is now part of SpringerMaterials. He studied physics and chemistry at the Universities of Würzburg and Göttingen, and obtained his Ph.D. in physics with R.W. Pohl, Gottingen. Before joining the University of Frankfurt/Main in 1961 as a full professor, he was visiting professor at the Cornell University, Ithaca, USA, and taught physics at the University of Stuttgart. His research focused on condensed matter physics, quantum optics and chaotic dynamics. Two of his former students and coworkers, Gerd K. Binnig and Horst L. Stormer, became Nobel laureates in physics. Werner Martienssen was a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Halle and of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen.