Conference: Local and Nanoscale Structure in Complex Systems

[Leilani Conradson]

Conference Announcement:

Local and Nanoscale Structure in Complex Systems
          16-21 September, Hotel Loretto, Santa Fe, New Mexico
www.lanl.gov/orgs/mst/LNS2001/


Sponsored by:
Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation 
Laboratory, and the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of 
Matter at the University of Pennsylvania

The scientific motivation for this meeting goes back ten years to the 
controversial observation of local lattice distortions in cuprates, 
which inspired the Local Lattice Effects in High Temperature 
Superconductors conference that was also held in Santa Fe in 1992. 
Since then it has been recognized that these displacements were a 
manifestation of the "stripes" that occur in correlated metal oxides. 
It is also becoming clear, however, that such behavior is far from 
unique.  The spontaneous development of nanoscale organization 
coupled to functionality is apparently common to many types and 
classes of materials, especially complex ones that exhibit correlated 
electron and atom behaviors that are manifested as phase 
instabilities and unusual chemical reactivity.  These unusual 
characteristics may therefore originate in the interactions between 
the resulting differently ordered domains and the attributes of the 
domain walls instead of bulk characteristics that assume a periodic 
lattice.  The special properties that ensue have generated much of 
the current interest in nanoscience.  Since nanoscale structure has 
always been recognized as intrinsic to soft matter and biomolecules, 
many of the ideas and methods already used in, e.g., biological 
physics, could be extended to condensed matter, and vice versa.

It is therefore timely to explore the origins of multiple stable 
conformations of atoms, their collective interactions that promote 
nanoscale organization, how they influence or even determine 
functionality, and the possibility of controlling structure and 
properties at this level in all of these classes of materials.  To 
foster a truly interdisciplinary meeting the conference sessions will 
be devoted to common nanoscience issues instead of the different 
substantive areas:


 Observations of Nanoscale Structure and Organization: A fundamental 
characteristic of complex
    systems? (Chaired by Alan Bishop, LANL)

 Origins and Organization of Local and Extended Lattice Distortions

 Spatial and Temporal Probes, Theory and Experiment (Chaired by 
Dragan Mihailovic, Josef Stefan
    Institut)

 Multiple Minima in (Free) Energy Landscapes (Chaired by Hans 
Frauenfelder, LANL)

 Multiscale Organization and Functionality: Consequences for 
Macroscopic Properties and Phase
    Stability (Chaired by James Phillips, Bell Labs)

 Technological Implications and Structural Control


Speakers will be asked to address these topics via their recent work 
using a more detailed description of the salient issues for each 
topic compiled by the session chairs.  Each session will end with a 
discussion period, and ample time will be available for the 
participants to meet informally.  Another factor that we believe will 
encourage success is that, as a "bottom up" rather than "top down" 
conference, the motivation and emphasis will utilize a pragmatic 
approach to "complexity" based on actual examples and work.  Relevant 
classes of materials include correlated and transformational 
crystalline solids, mixed valence oxides and alloys, catalysts, 
polymers and other soft or molecular compounds, proteins, actinides 
and other f-electron systems, semiconductors, photoexcited 
transformational compounds, and fabricated heterostructures.

Speakers include:
Paul Alivisatos 		UC Berkeley
Anna Balazs		University of Pittsburgh
Begg, Bruce		Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization
Antonio Bianconi		Universita di Roma "La Sapienza"
Frank Bridges		UC Santa Cruz
Annette Bussman-Holder	Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research
Daniel Dessau		University of Colorado
Takeshi Egami		University of Pennsylvania
Javier Espinosa-Faller	University Marista, Merida, Mexico
Hanke Werner 		University Wurzburg, Germany
Masaru Ichikawa		Hokkaido University, Japan
Hiroshi Kamimura		Science University of Tokyo, Japan
James Krumhansl		Dartmouth College
Leslie Kuhn		Michigan State University
Gerry Lander		Institute Laue-Langevin /Institute for 
Transuranic Elements
Richard Lesar		Los Alamos National Laboratory
Albert Migliori		Los Alamos National Laboratory
Hiroyuki Oyanagi		National Institute of Advanced 
Industrial Science and Technology
Fritz Parak		Technischen Universitat Munchen
Stuart Parkin		IBM, Almaden
James Phillips		Bell Labs
Naurang Saini		Universita di Roma "La Sapienza"
Z.X. Shen		Stanford University
Sunil Sinha		Argonne National Laboratory
Michael Thorpe		Michigan State University
Richard Welberry		Australian National University
Yizhak Yacoby		Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew 
University, Jerusalem

Registration, technical and administrative contacts, and other 
information may be found on the website.
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