Editorial

Abstract

This special issue of Nanotechnology contains papers selected from four symposia of the 8th International Union of Materials Research Society Conference on Electronic Materials (IUMRS–ICEM 2002), which was held in Xi'an, China, 10–14 June 2002. The four symposia are Symposium C: Materials and technologies for Electronic and Optoelectronic Devices, Symposium E: Molecular and Biomolecular Electronics, Symposium I: Spintronics: Materials and Applications, and Symposium J: Advanced Materials and Technologies for Data Storage and Nanoelectronic Devices. They covered recent progress on nanodevices and advanced materials, including nanoelectronics, spintronics and moletronics. A wide diversity of scientific disciplines were represented, as seen in the selected papers in this issue.Sixteen symposia, including six plenary lectures, were held at the IUMRS–ICEM 2002 conference. In the four symposia mentioned above, 239 papers were presented. Ninety-two of the submitted papers (including 25 invited talks) were accepted for publication after the peer-review process. Fifteen of them are presented in this special issue of Nanotechnology, and the rest will be published in an accompanying IOP Conference Series book.The success of IUMRS–ICEM 2002 was due to the contributions of many individuals. We would like to thank all the referees for their constructive and critical reviewing work. We are particularly indebted to the C-MRS, the Conference Chair, and the Chairs of the four symposia, Professors Zhanguo Wang, Meixiang Wan, Yunqi Liu, Wuyan Lai, Zhaohuan Chen, and Zhongfan Liu. We would also like to thank the people from the Nanoscale Physics and Devices Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for their work on the proceedings. Special thanks should go to Dr Hongwen Liu and Mr Xiao Lin for their help with the preparation of papers. Guest Editors Hongjun Gao Harald Fuchs Dongmin Chen