International Crystal Growth Summer School

Park City, Utah, August, 2007

http://www.crystalgrowth.us/isscg13/index.php

[ISSCG-13 logo]The 13th International Summer School on Crystal Growth ISSCG-13, was held at the Park City Marriott in Park City, Utah, August 5-11, 2007, hosted by the American Association of Crystal Growth (AACG) under the auspices of the International Organization of Crystal Growth. The School was held prior to the 15th International Conference on Crystal Growth (ICCG-15) in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were 149 attendees from Armenia, Austria, Brazil, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.

Approximately 50% of the attendees were undergrads or post-docs, 20% were lecturers, and the remainder were researchers both new and highly experienced in crystal growth. The large turnout of students from abroad was made possible due to generous sponsorship from the American Chemical Society/Crystal Growth and Design, International Institute of Complex Adaptive Matter (I2CAM), IUCr, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Olsen Foundation, SAFC Hitech, the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the AACG. About half of the students received some financial support.

[Group photo]A comprehensive series of lectures provided an overview of traditional crystal growth as well as emerging technologies. Lectures encompassed theoretical and experimental aspects of growth, including the thermodynamics, kinetics, fluid dynamics, and growth mechanisms of crystals grown from melts, solutions, and vapors. Lecturers presented in situ and ex situ characterization of semi-conducting, oxide, metallic, organic, inorganic, and biological crystals, as well as crystal surfaces and interfaces and emergent systems. The technical lectures were complemented by the ISSCG-13 textbook, “Perspectives on Inorganic, Organic, and Biological Crystal Growth: From Fundamentals to Applications,” which was published in the AIP Conference Series (Vol. 916, July 2007) and given to each of the attendees.

Questions addressed in the school included: How do surfactants affect crystal growth?  What makes an abalone shell so hard? How can nano-particles solve the energy crisis?

Five lectures covering Crystal Growth Fundamentals including melt growth with either rough or smooth interfaces (G. Muller, U. Erlangen-Nurnberg), 2-D nucleation and dislocations in solution growth cluster formation (A. Chernov, LLNL), the evolution of vapor growth from HVPE to OMVPE (G. Stringfellow, U. Utah), defects in crystals (P. Rudolph, IKZ Berlin) and in situ monitoring techniques (K. Ploog, Paul Drude Inst).

Topics in Simulation and Modeling included a tutorial on the tools for modeling melt and solution growth processes (J. Derby, U. Minn.), melt flow and crystal growth under applied magnetic fields (K. Kakimoto, Kyushu U.), a mesoscopic model in which the phase field is used to interpolate between macro-experiment and micro-step flow (R. Sekerka, Carnegie Mellon U.), and Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations used to predict the “landscapes” of crystal surface morphology (J. Evans, Iowa State).

The session Crystal Surfaces and Interface covered biogenic mineral growth systems (P. Dove, Virginia Tech), kink density and cluster formation in protein crystals (P. Vekilov, U. Houston), the adsorption of impurities on mineral surfaces (S. Parker, Bath U.), surfactant-mediated epitaxial growth (T. Kuech, U. Wisc.) and the structure of the crystal-liquid and crystal-vapor interfaces (E. Vlieg, Nijmegen U.).

Four-lectures on In situ Characterization included using optical interferometry to monitor high temperature solution growth in real time (K. Tsukamoto, Tohoku U.), the use of scanning probe microscopy to derive step velocity and free energy at crystal-fluid interfaces (C. Orme, LLNL), VLS nanowire growth using in situ electron microscopy (F. Ross, IBM), and thin film spectroscopic techniques (M. Pristovek, Tech. U. Berlin).

An Emergent Systems session addressed biomineralization (L. Addadi, Weizmann Inst.), supramolecular crystal design (M. Lahav, Weizmann Inst.), the impact of impurities on growth steps (J. DeYoreo, LLNL), self epitaxial or templated nucleation that makes abalone shell tougher than steel (X. Yu-Liu, Singapore Natl. U.), nanotubes (G. Galli, UC Davis), and solar energy and nanodot photovoltaics (A. Nozik, NREL).

A final series of lectures on Novel Crystal Technology addressed bulk and epitaxial SiC growth methods (M. Skowronski, Carnegie Mellon U.), wide bandgap semiconductors fundamental nucleation modes (R. Davis, Carnegie Mellon), properties of nonlinear optical crystals (P. Schunemann, BAE Systems), and novel nanocomposites for artificial bones and teeth (A. Tomsia, LBNL).

The highlight of the banquet at the Canyon’s Red Pine lodge was a biographical lecture by M. McBride (Yale U.) with photographs and notes on “A Portrait of Ostwald’s Life”.

David Bliss