The 18th International Symposium on the Physics of Semiconductors and Applications (ISPSA-2016) was held at Ramada Plaza Jeju Hotel, Jeju, Korea, on July 3-7, 2016. The symposium was organized by the Korean Physical Society, Korean Vacuum Society, and was jointly sponsored by the Korean Federation of Science and Technology Societies, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the Korean semiconductor industries. The purpose of the Symposium was to provide scientists, engineers, and researchers with chances to exchange technical information and to gain insight into the state of the art and the future R&D directions in the rapidly advancing semiconductor science and technologies. The Symposium consisted of five days of oral and poster presentations of invited and contributed papers. Invited speakers reviewed the state of the art and future perspectives in their respective expertise. In light of the exciting developments currently being made in the chiral materials and quantum phenomena, the ISPSA-2016 has focused on III-V, II-VI, IV-IV compounds and organic & oxide semiconductors with particular emphasis on the fabrication and control of materials in nanometer dimensions to access new physics and materials/device characteristics. Several leading scientists and researchers were invited from all over the world to present recent progresses in this field.
The topics covered with emphasis and highlight in ISPSA-2016 included:
- Compound Semiconductors (III-V and II-VI)
- Si and Other Group IV Based Semiconductors
- Spintronics & Ferromagnetic Semiconductors
- Organic and Oxide Based Semiconductors
- Nano-Bio Materials and Devices
- Chiral Materials and Quantum Transport
- 2D Materials
- Plasmonics and Optoelectronics
- Energy
- Quantum Information
This symposium provided the best opportunity for scientists from the United States to gain insights into the research undertaken in industries and universities, especially of the far eastern Asia countries with technological importance such as Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China as evidenced by the attendance of participants in previous conferences. The symposium was also a place for the advanced research achievements in the United States to be presented to attract attention from researchers in the region. Presentations of many innovative, novel ideas and results promoted a great deal of technological and economic cooperation between the United States and the countries of the region.
While Korea has shown notable successes in semiconductor research, the United States still possesses the most advanced science and technologies in many branches of the research fields. A large number of Korean researchers and graduate students have been participating in conferences held in the United States, joining research teams at various universities in the United States, in many cases with support from the Korean government. Exchange of scientists and students from both countries already has brought fruitful collaborations in the research and development of compound semiconductors.