MRS 2007 Fall Meeting - Symposium on Scanning Probe Microscopy

Dear colleagues
    We would like to bring to your attention the symposium on Nanoscale
Phenomena in Functional Materials by Scanning Probe Microscopy, to be
held at the Materials Research Society 2007 Fall meeting in Boston, MA.
The symposium description is attached below and can also be accessed on
the MRS web-site (http://www.mrs.org/s_mrs/sec.asp?CID=8005&DID=192095).
The deadline for abstract submission is June 20.
    Looking forward to seeing you in Boston
    On behalf of the organizers
    Sergei V. Kalinin

  Symposium B: Nanoscale Phenomena in Functional Materials by Scanning
  Probe Microscopy

The last decade has witnessed spectacular progress in the development
and applications of scanning probe microscopy (SPM)-based nanoscale
imaging techniques. The combination of high spatial resolution and
sensitivity to local electronic, optical, and mechanical properties
places these techniques among the most versatile tools for nanoscience,
biology, physics, and materials science. Atomic and electronic structure
of surfaces, vibrational excitations, energy flow, and local materials
properties on the molecular level has become accessible with the advent
of high-resolution SPMs. Electrostatic SPMs are being established as
powerful techniques for spatially resolved studies of electronic
transport on the nanometer level at electroactive interfaces and in
molecular electronic devices such as carbon nanotubes. Dynamic SPM modes
and scanning indentation techniques allow mechanical compliance and
surface energy to be investigated at the nanoscale with applications to
the emerging fields of nanotribology, nanofluidics, nanocomposites, and
NEMS. Novel optical imaging modes, such as tip-enhanced spectroscopy,
solid immersion microscopy, and apertureless scanning optical
microscopy, have joined the now-established near-field scanning optical
microscopy (NSOM), bringing the resolution of optical spectroscopy into
the nanoscale regime and complementing local electronic measurements of
materials with the STM family of instruments. These new measurement
techniques were necessitated by the growing need for materials
characterization on the nanoscale and have in turn led to the discovery
of new nanoscale phenomena. Finally, the SPM has been used to manipulate
and fabricate materials at the nanoscale.

It is the goal of this symposium to provide a multidisciplinary forum
for scanning-probe-based materials and nanoscience in order to
demonstrate the latest achievements in technique developments and
materials applications that have led to scientific discoveries. The
symposium will include two types of sessions: One will be dedicated to
the recent advances in technique development of interest to the
materials community and will bring together specialists in practical and
theoretical aspects of SPM imaging. The second will focus on specific
materials-related phenomena, including nanotubes and nanowires, quantum
dots, surfaces, interfaces, and biological systems studied by local
probe techniques.

The topics of the symposium will include, but not be limited to:

    * Imaging, manipulation, and energy transfer on the atomic and
      molecular level by atomic resolution NC-AFM and STM
    * Local optical and electronic properties and excitations, e.g.,
      plasmons measured with SPMs
    * Defects, impurities, dopants, and transport in semiconductor
      nanostructures, nanotubes, and nanowires
    * Mechanics and electromechanics on the nanoscale by SPM and
      nanoindentation
    * Mechanical and voltage nanolithography and surface modification
    * Energy flows and dissipation in materials, devices, and
      nanostructures
    * Transport in single-molecule devices and carbon nanotubes
    * Imaging and characterization of ferroelectric materials
    * Electronic properties of semiconductor heterostructures
    * Imaging and characterization of biological systems
    * Dynamics and imaging of polymers and soft materials

Invited speakers include: *Robert Carpick* (Univ. of Pennsylvania),
*Levent Degertekin* (Georgia Inst. of Technology), *Dennis Discher*
(Univ. of Pennsylvania), *Ricardo Garcia* (Univ. Madrid, Spain), *Franz
Giessibl* (Univ. Augsburg, Germany), *Venkat Gopalan* (Pennsylvania
State Univ.), *Jan Hoh* (Johns Hopkins Univ.), *Ernesto Joselevich*
(Weizmann Inst. of Science, Israel), *Maki Kawai* (RIKEN, Japan), *L.
Kuipers* (FOM, The Netherlands), *Alexander Malkin* (Lawrence Livermore
National Lab), *Lukas Novotny* (Univ. of Rochester), *E. Ward* *Plummer*
(Univ. of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Lab), *V. Sandoghdar* (ETH
Zurich, Switzerland), *M. Tomitori* (JAIST, Japan), and *S. Wilks*
(Swansea Univ., United Kingdom).

*Symposium Organizers*

*Dawn** Bonnell*
University of Pennsylvania, Nano/Bio Interface Center, 3231 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel 215-898-6231, Fax 215-746-3204, bonnell@lrsm.upenn.edu
<mailto:bonnell@lrsm.upenn.edu>

*Sergei V. Kalinin*
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Materials Sciences and Technology
Division and Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, 1 Bethel Valley
Rd., Oak Ridge, TN 37831
Tel 865-241-0236, Fax 865-574-4143, sergei2@ornl.gov
<mailto:sergei2@ornl.gov>

*Sidney R. Cohen*
Weizmann Institute of Science, Surface Analysis Laboratory, Rehovot
76100 Israel
Tel 972-8-934-2703/3422, Fax 972-8-934-4137, sidney.cohen@weizmann.ac.il
<mailto:sidney.cohen@weizmann.ac.il>

*Richard E. Palmer*
University of Birmingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nanoscale
Physics Research Laboratory, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom
Tel 44-121-414-4653, Fax 44-121-414-7327, r.e.palmer@bham.ac.uk
<mailto:r.e.palmer@bham.ac.uk>

 
Received on Thu Jun 14 10:59:10 2007