Towards Reality in Nanoscale Materials

As the scale of materials science approaches the nano, deviations from ideality become increasingly important, and standard assumptions on the role of defects and impurities on materials properties are rarely valid. For example, even a single point defect changes significantly the tensile strength and conductance of carbon nanotubes, as they are essentially one-dimensional objects. Defects are often dominant in chemical reactions, acting as key sites for molecular and cluster adsorption, even enhancing the reactivity of catalysts. In this workshop we aim to bring together experts in studying these deviations from the ideal, whose work has demonstrated the importance of building a model system as close to reality as possible. The main topics of the workshop are as follows:

• Methods - application of first principles methods to atomistic modeling of non-ideal nanoscale materials. Including advanced approaches for studying excited states and very large systems.
• Multiscale - approaches to link first principles calculations to larger scale methods, such as kinetic Monte Carlo.
• Defects in nano-structured carbon materials - including the study of how mechanical and electronic properties of nano-structured carbon materials are influenced by defects.
• Surface chemistry at the nanoscale - particular emphasis will be placed on those systems where defects and impurities clearly dominate reactive properties.
• Defect creation - studies of doped and irradiated nanoscale materials.
• Defect control - beyond just studying and understanding the properties of defects and impurities, we wish to explore avenues of atomic scale control: charging; optical excitation; mechanical manipulation. This direction leads to the possibility of tailoring the electronic structure of nanoscale systems.

The workshop consists of invited and contributed talks as well as posters and short poster talks. There will be no conference paper, but an abstract book will be provided. Although the majority of invited and contributed speakers will be from theory, several invited experts will cover recent progress in relevant experimental areas.
See the workshop poster.

The workshop will be held in Levi (Hotel K5) in Finnish Lapland from Monday 2007-12-10 to Wednesday 2007-12-12. There are flights from Helsinki to the nearby airport of Kittilä. Scheduled buses meet every flight to Kittilä, and it takes about 10-15 minutes to reach Levi.
See the map of Levi.
See an external map and instructions.

For those interested there are full facilities for both downhill and cross country skiing in Levi.

The long-time average temperature in Levi in the middle of December is about -10 C (15 F). The record high and low temperatures are about +5 and -40 C (+40 and -40 F). The length of day is only about one hour.
Check the current The 5-day forecast for Kittilä.

We thank the Academy of Finland, the National Graduate School in Materials Physics, the European Science Foundation, the Psi-k network, and the Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation for support.

• Participation fee - Participation is free. However, the number of participants is limited. If more applications are received than the conference facilities allow, the participants will be chosen based on the submitted abstracts. Priority will be given to students and young post-docs.
• Accommodation expenses - The organizers are planning to cover fully the accommodation expenses for the participants.
• Travel expenses - You can apply for travel support when registering. The amount of support will be decided based on the number of applicants, the submitted abstracts, and the need for support.

Find the abstracts by clicking the names of the speakers or browse the abstract book. (All participants will receive a printed copy of the book.)