PLASMA 2006: The 5th International Conference on the Intrinsic Josephson Effect and Plasma Oscillations in High-Tc Superconductors

Abstract

The 5th International Conference on the Intrinsic Josephson Effect and Plasma Oscillations in High-Tc Superconductors (known as `PLASMA' for short) took place in London from July 17th to 19th 2006. The meeting was organised jointly by the Superconductivity Group of the Institute of Physics and the European Science Foundation network `Arrays of Quantum Dots and Josephson Junctions' (AQDJJ). It was sponsored by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, AQDJJ, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Physics and the National Institute of Materials Science (NIMS). The meeting was chaired by Paul Warburton of University College London who wishes to put on record his thanks to the conference sponsors for their generosity, without which the conference could not have taken place.Since the previous PLASMA conference in Tsukuba in 2004 the most significant advance in intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) research has arguably been the observation of macroscopic quantum tunnelling in IJJs. At the time of the conference this had been observed by both the RIEC/NIMS/AIST collaboration in Japan and by Paul Müller's group in Erlangen. We therefore felt that the conference presented an ideal and timely opportunity for the IJJ community to learn from the more established community of researchers on macroscopic quantum phenomena in low-Tc superconductors---and indeed vice versa. As a result a number of leading researchers from the field of low-Tc Josephson qubit devices gave several illuminating presentations. Other sessions included those on Josephson vortex dynamics in layered systems and terahertz oscillations in IJJs, in addition to a lively poster session on the first evening. The conference was rounded off by an excellent summary of the highlights of the meeting given by Professor Hu-Jong Lee.The conference organisers would like to thank all those who made the meeting possible and contributed to its smooth running. In addition to the international organising committee, local organising committee, sponsoring organisations and session chairs (who we hope will forgive us if we use lack of space as justification for not naming them individually), special thanks are due to Jasmina Bolfek-Radovani of the Institute of Physics for her day-to-day running of the conference which was of the highest standard possible.