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ISCGTIEM

Mysore, India, January, 2003

[ISCGTIEM group]

The Int'l School on the Crystal Growth of Technologically Important Electronic Materials, organized by K. Byrappa (U. India) and R. Fornari, (Italy), was held in Mysore, India, January 20-28, 2003. The school was supported by the IUCr, the Indian Defence Ministry, CSIR, U. of Mysore and industries and public organizations in Mysore. The school had 90 students and 30 tutors from 20 different countries. The school presented both fundamentals and recent advances in crystal growth and included historical and theoretical concepts and techniques of growing and characterizing crystals.

The ISCGTIEM was opened by the Honorable Union Minister, Govt. of India, V. Srinivasa Prasad. In an inaugural address, K. Lal, (Director, Nat'l Physcial Lab, New Delhi) described the development of crystal growth science in India from the days of A. R. Varma.

R. Fornari, Chairman of the IUCr Commission on Crystal Growth, described the activities of the Commission. H. Klapper (Germany) discussed the history and objectives of IUCr Commission schools. The Honourable Vice Chancellor of the U. of Mysore, K. S. Hegde announced the publication of a comprehensive book on hydrothermal research 'Handbook of Hydrothermal Technology, A Technology for Crystal Growth and Materials Processing' by K. Byrappa (India) and M. Yoshimura (Japan). N. D. Tiwari (Registrar, U. of Mysore), announced the publication of the ISCGTIEM Proceedings Book, edited by K. Byrappa, T. Ohachi, H. Klapper, and R. Fornari and published by Allied Science Publishers, New Delhi.

P. Rudolph (Germany) spoke on stoichiometry–related growth phenomena and discussed the state of the art of industrial scale GdAs crystal growth. F. Abbona (Italy), spoke on crystal growth from solutions, covering solvents, solubility, supersaturation, surface structure, nucleation, growth kinetics and the effect of impurities. In a lecture on heterogeneous nucleation and crystal network formation, X. Y. Liu (Singapore) discussed crystallization kinetics and thermodynamic models. He emphasized the importance of novel technologies in controlling crystallization and pattern formation at low temperatures. Y. Furukawa (Japan), spoke on pattern formation of ice crystals during growth from supercooled water. H. Klapper discussed rapid growth of crystals from solution. The demand for huge KDP crystals of edge length up to 60 cm for laser fusion led to the development of a new method of crystal growth that reduced growth time from 18 months to a few weeks. T. Ohachi discussed the bulk and surface morphology of silver chalcogenides at equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions in which interface morphology is controlled by the transport species for the growing crystal shape. There were lectures on modelling of crystal growth processes by T. Duffar (France), Q.-S. Chen (China) and J. P. J. M. Van der Eerden (The Netherlands). A. Moreno (Mexico) delivered lectures on the influence of electric and magnetic fields upon protein crystallization. K. Byrappa reviewed the status of the hydrothermal method of growing crystals of rare earth vanadates and quartz.

There were lectures on growth of crystals from melt. R. Fornari covered fundamental concepts, and H. Dabkowska (Canada) discussed the growth of oxide single crystals by the optical floating zone method. A session on crystal growth and characterization of single crystals of SiC (a wide band-gap semiconductor) featured lectures by T. Sudarshan (USA), I. Bhat (USA), G. Dhanaraj (USA) and Q.-S. Chen.

A session on vapour phase growth included lecturers on vapour phase epitaxial growth and properties of nitrides (R. Fornari), MBE growth of high index GaAs and GaN on Si using microwave plasma (T. Ohachi), dislocation reduction in lattice-mismatched heterostructures (Z. R. Zytkiewicz, Poland); and CVD growth and characterization of ZnS (V. K. Wadhawan, India). H. Strunk (Germany) discussed microepitaxial growth and transmission electron microscopy for defect characterization of semiconductor crystals. D. Bliss (USA), lectured on bulk crystal growth by vertical gradient freezing, and T. Simecek (Czech Rep) described the importance of LPE.

Other lectures concerned crystal growth in microgravity (T. Hibiya, Japan), in space (T. Duffar), in vacuum and beyond (E. Vlieg, The Netherlands). K. Soga (Japan) described the preparation of icosahedral cluster solids and their applications in modern electronics. The character of the icosahedral cluster, an intermediate between semiconductor and metal, is the most favorable one for thermoelectric converters. Similarly, boron-rich icosahedral cluster solids are potential candidates for high Tc superconductors due to their high density of state at the Fermi level.

A cultural evening was organized and the students and faculty of the Fine Arts College of the U. of Mysore entertained ISCGTIEM delegates with Indian folk, classical and traditional dances and music. An excursion to historical sites and national monuments (Belur, Halebeedu and Shravanabelagola) was organized.

The lectures were recorded, a video CD is available, and the proceedings can be obtained from K. Byrappa, byrappak@yahoo.com.

K. Byrappa
5 August 2009