Commission on Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials

Report from the 16th International Conference on Crystal Growth (ICCG16)

Beijing, China, 2010

On behalf of the International Organization for Crystal Growth (IOCG), Chinese Association for Crystal Growth (CACG) hosted the 16th International Conference on Crystal Growth (ICCG16) together with the 14th International Conference on Vapor Growth and Epitaxy (ICVGE14) in Beijing, China on August 8-13, 2010. The conference was held at the Beijing International Convention Center, just a few hundred meters away from the 'Birdnest' - a main site for the 2008 Olympic Games. Following the tradition, the International Summer School on Crystal Growth (ISSCG-14) was also held the previous week in Dalian, China.

The International Conference on Crystal Growth (ICCG) is the largest gathering for scientists, engineers and students from all over the world in the crystal growth field. Since the first conference in Boston in 1966, the ICCG eventually become a triennial event. The topics covering fundamentals of crystal growth, crystal growth method and technology, semiconductor crystals and a variety of functional crystal materials, crystal structure, properties, characterization, post-processing and application were featured at the conferences. With the advancement in crystal growth science and technology, thin films and micro/nano-crystalline materials, such as low-dimensional crystal growth and research, have also become important parts of ICCG.

Over last 50 years, crystal growth has attracted great attention in China and with academic and industrial developments being made by Chinese scientists and engineers, especially the frontier work in non-linear optical crystals. Chinese crystal growth society has about 500 members and has become one of the largest crystal growth societies in the world. With this large domestic membership, the Chinese Association for Crystal Growth (CACG) hopes that ICCG in China has provided an excellent opportunity for scientists and engineers in China and from around the world to share experiences and exchange ideas in crystal growth research and application. Preparation for the ICCG16/ICVGE14 started in 2008 with the primary participation from Shandong University, Institute of Physical and Chemical Technology (CAS), Nanjing University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics (CAS), and others. Suggestions and advice was gratefully received from the members of International Organization for Crystal Growth (IOCG) as well as Japanese Association for Crystal Growth (JACG). Chinese Ceramic Society provided conference planning and local support in areas such as conference room reservation, hotel arrangement, invitation letters, registration, etc. critical to the success of ICCG16/ICVGE14. The conference has received financial support from the Chinese Academy of Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China, International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) and many institutes for crystal growth research in China.

The scientific program of ICCG16/ICVGE14 covered 16 topic areas including fundamentals of crystal growth (theory, simulation, modeling, growth mechanism, surface and interfaces); growth of crystalline silicon and photovoltaic materials; narrow gap and compound semiconductors; wide band-gap semiconductors: bulk and epitaxial growth; thin film and epitaxial crystal growth; crystal growth of laser and nonlinear optics (including laser ceramics); growth of scintillating, ferroelectric, piezoelectric and multi-functional crystals; crystals for thermoelectric, magnetic and electron-correlated systems; new crystalline materials and novel growth technology; bulk crystal growth of miscellaneous materials; industrial crystallizations; organic and biological crystallization; photonic, phononic crystals and fundamentals; nanocrystalline materials - dots, wires, nano-tubes, fullerenes etc.; in-situ measurement and characterization of crystal growth; advanced characterization of crystals and defects.

The conference has received 1464 abstracts. The conference was truly international with abstracts from around the world: 630 from China, 242 from Japan, 126 from India, 114 from Russia, 79 from USA, 55 from Germany, 31 from France, 26 from Ukraine, 19 from UK, 14 each from South Korea and Spain, rest from Algeria, Armenia, Singapore, Mexico, Romania, Spain, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Australia, Italy, Iran, Thailand, Belgium, Norway, Israel, Denmark, Turkey, Hungary, Sweden, Bangladesh, Austria, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Brazil, Slovenia, the Philippines, Sweden and Switzerland. The registered number of attendants was 1100, among them 521 from China and 579 from around the rest of the world. In terms of numbers of both abstracts and attendants, this conference had both record high attendance and number of submitted abstracts for an ICCG conference.

During ICCG16/ICVGE14, there were 5 plenary speeches, 422 oral presentations and 436 poster presentation, and 3 award presentations. Plenary speeches were given by Chuangtian Chen (China) on 'Crystal Growth of the KBBF Family and Deep-UV Harmonic Generation', Eicke R. Weber (Germany) on 'Progress in Crystal Growth and Epitaxy of Solar Cells', Thomas Kuech (USA) on 'Vapor Phase Growth of Complex Semiconductor Alloys', Akinori Koukitu (Japan) on 'In situ Gravimetric Monitoring of Hydrogen Etching Rates of GaN, Sapphire and SiC', and Shining Zhu (China) on 'Engineering Ferroelectric Domain for Nonlinear Photonics, Laser and Quantum Optics'. Award lectures were presented by Martin E. Glicksman (recipient of Frank Prize) on ' fundamental issues associated with dendritic growth kinetics', James J. DeYoreo (Laudise Prize) on 'technology and scientific basis of rapid growth of perfect crystals from solutions', and Victor Maltsev (recipient of Schieber prize) on 'Single crystal growth of novel rare-earth-doped orthoborates for a new generation of bulk and waveguide near-infrared lasers'.

The purpose of ICCG/ICVGE is to provide a forum for the presentations with discussion of recent developments and achievements in all aspects of crystal growth through the various sessions integrating fundamental, experimental and industrial growth processes, characterization and applications. Such discussion helps to stimulate the review of foundational theory and current practice and to exchange new ideas within informal social activities. For example, photovoltaic-based energy production is one of the current important approaches to renewable energy. One of the key elements in photovoltaic industry is the growth of materials using improved or newly developed crystal growth technologies. These technologies progress through an understanding of new phenomena driven by the needs for the cost effective growth of high quality materials. In this conference, 68 oral/poster presentations were given in the topic session of 'Growth of Crystalline Silicon and Photovoltaic Materials' with a large participation from members of the photovoltaic industries. This session topic has provided an ideal platform for industrial and academic researchers to share their ideas and experience in photovoltaic materials research and manufacturing. Such industrial-academic participation promotes the IOCG as playing a vital role in the development of new crystal growth technologies that helps our society at large. From this conference, about 608 oral/poster presentations were written as full length manuscripts submitted for potential publication in the conference proceeding. After rigorous peer review process, 257 manuscripts were selected for inclusion in the proceeding volume of ICCG16/ICVGE14 in Journal of Crystal Growth.

In addition to regular scheduled events, two special forums were arranged. The first forum was 'Fundamentals of crystallization and crystallization beyond the traditional domain' which focused on two topics: 1) the current crystallization fundamental research and its future, and 2) the future prospective of crystallization beyond the traditional sense. The second forum was 'Teaching crystal growth: Current status and new strategies'. Extensive discussions were made on educational activities in the field of crystal growth in various countries, as well as the strategies for future development in this area. There were also 46 exhibitions on crystal growth relevant equipment and products.

ICCG16/ICVGE14 in Beijing was a great success after ICCG15/ICVGE13 in Salt Lake City Utah, USA. The 17th ICCG conference will be held in Warsaw, Poland. We wish it even a greater success in 2013.

The conference received the financial support from IUCr. According to the regulation, the conference supported 18 young scientists (each one $600), to support them participating Beijing Conference. And the conference was also responsible to the costs of the winners for Laudise Prize and Frank Prize.

Ji. Y. Wang
General Secretary of ICCG16 and member of CCGCM

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