Preface and Acknowledgments

The 27th International Conference on Defects in Semiconductors (ICDS-2013) was held in Bologna, Italy, July 22–26, 2013. The conferences in this series, which dates back to 1959, are held every 2 years and provide a valuable forum where researchers studying the fundamentals of defects in semiconductors can share their most recent findings with colleagues and thereby advance understanding in this technologically and scientifically important field. The proceedings are published in part in the Journal of Applied Physics (mostly by invited papers) and in part in the AIP Proceedings (mostly contributed papers). Following tradition, a tutorial day was held on July 2l to help students and newcomers become familiar with important experimental and theoretical techniques used to study defects in semiconductors. The five speakers in the tutorial were Professors Michael Stavola (Lehigh University, USA), Michelle Moram (Imperial College London, UK), Michael Reshchikov (Virginia Commonwealth University, USA), John Morton (University College London, UK), and Audrius Alkauskas (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA). Nearly 50 junior scientists attended the tutorial day and thoroughly enjoyed the lectures. The atmosphere was most pleasant and the scientific level excellent. We thank the speakers for helping to educate the next generation of researchers. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy subsidized this event. The conference itself attracted 256 participants from 36 countries. There were 6 plenary, 25 invited, and 67 contributed talks. Over 200 posters were distributed among two poster sessions. A wide range of defect-related issues was discussed in semiconductor materials ranging from the traditional group IV, III-V, and II-VI materials to organic semiconductors, and nanostructures. The defect issues included localized impurities and native defects, dislocations, interfaces and surfaces, magnetic impurities and spintronics, radiation-induced defects, as well as numerous defect-related issues in devices. Many attendees noted the high scientific level in the various sessions. An international Jury of five distinguished scientists was assigned the difficult task of selecting the Corbett Award winner. The Jury interviewed the six finalists during the poster sessions. Following a difficult debate, one winner was selected: Adurafimihan A. Abiona from the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia. He received the award at the conference banquet. As is always the case in ICDS conferences, the registration fees covered only part of the expenses. This conference would not have been possible without the financial support provided by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (ISE, Freiburg, Germany), the higher administration of the University of Bologna, the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Bologna and the Enrico Fermi Center. We thank these institutions for their help putting this conference together. We also thank the Department of Physics and Astronomy for providing personnel to work at the conference site and the local organizing committee. Finally, we thank the members of the program committee who helped select presenters and the many referees who reviewed manuscripts. We also thank the speakers and poster participants who made the conference so interesting and enjoyable for all. We hope to see a similarly enthusiastic crowd of scientists in Finland, at ICDS-2015.