Foreword

Abstract

Since 1982, a series of bi-annual meetings devoted to surface phonons have been organized, initially by the late Heinz Bilz and subsequently by J Peter Toennies and Winfried Kress. The first six meetings were held in Schloss Ringberg (Germany) and from 1994 until 1998, alternately, in the USA and Germany. For the seventh meeting it was decided to broaden the subject area covered. Topics such as anharmonicity on surfaces, diffusion of surface atoms, surface-steps dynamics and related issues were incorporated into the conference, in addition to discussions of new aspects of surface phonons. In the ninth edition at Virginia (USA) in 1999, the consensus was to expand the context of the next meeting to a broader audience and to different European countries apart from Germany. In this new forward step, it was decided to hold the 2001 meeting for the first time in Spain. The `Tenth Workshop on Surface Dynamics: Phonons, Adsorbate Vibrations and Diffusion' was thus held in El Escorial (Spain) from 13 to 17 June, and covered the following topics: surface phonons, anharmonic effects at surfaces, step and nanostructure dynamics, adsorbate vibrations, friction, surface phase transitions, surface diffusion and surface reaction.