Preface: Phys. Status Solidi C 7/2012

Abstract

Abstract This special issue collects a selection of papers that were presented at the 16th International Semiconducting and Insulating Materials Conference (SIMC‐XVI), held at KTH (Royal Institute of Technology), Stockholm, Kista, Sweden from June 19–23, 2011. Over the years from its genesis in 1980, SIMC has been maintaining the tradition of addressing the link between materials research and application. SIMC‐XVI was no exception. SIMC has been held in 11 countries and four continents during its 31 year history. The programme committee set up an attractive programme portraying vividly the recent developments in emerging semiconducting and insulating materials and their applications. The conference was filled with 101 contributions with an equal number of participants from 26 countries belonging to 5 continents. There were totally 8 topical oral sessions that included 19 invited talks and one poster session covering nanostructures, materials for energy, oxides, bismides, wide bandgap nitrides, materials characterization and devices. The pss Young Researcher Award , sponsored by physica status solidi, was given to Naeem Shahid, KTH and The Best Poster Award, sponsored by the conference organizers, was given to Päivi Mattila, Aalto University, Finland. We are grateful to all the members of the Programme Committee, International Advisory Board and several members of the staff and students at School of ICT, KTH for their valuable time to make this conference a success. The generosity of several sponsors facilitated smooth functioning of the conference without financial constraints. We would like to thank primarily Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council) for its grant allotted to the invited speakers. The reception and conference dinner at the Stockholm City Hall (Nobel Prize Dinner Venue) was generously hosted by Stockholms Stad (City of Stockholm). Everybody felt the fever of the Nobel Prize and equally enjoyed the sumptuous dinner. The boat trip that followed on the waters of Stockholm under sunshine was a memorable one. Of course, KTH supported this conference through the magnanimous contribution from the School of ICT (Prof. Mikael Östling), Materials Platform (Prof. Ulf Karlsson), Energy Platform (Prof. Ramon Wyss), Electrum Lab (Dr. Nils Nordell) and ADOPT – Linné Center in Advanced Optics and Photonics (Prof. Gunnar Björk). We are also very grateful to Fabsupport AB (Mr. Jonas Andersson), Aixtron (Dr. Rainer Beccard), Acreo and Imagic Centre of Excellence (Dr. Jan Andersson). It is our pleasure to thank Ms. Anna Hermansson at Congrex and Ms. Madeleine Printzsköld at KTH for taking care of several of the practical aspects of the conference. Last but not least, we should thank Dr. Stefan Hildebrandt, Ms. Julia Huebner and Ms. Irina Juschak, the editorial staff of pss, for their cooperation.