Preface – Symposium J: Phys. Status Solidi C 3/2011

This special issue of physica status solidi features the papers presented at Symposium J of the 2010 Spring Meeting of the European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) entitled Silicon based Nanophotonics, held in Strasbourg (France) on June 7–11, 2010. These Proceedings address several issues in silicon based nanophotonic materials and devices, from materials growth of nanosized structures to devices. The focus is on the use of silicon as a substrate material to utilize the infrastructure of the silicon microelectronics industry.

Over the last few years there has been a strong emphasis to develop photonic devices based on silicon, driven by the prospect of integration into the inexpensive silicon electronics platform. More recently, apparent limitations in heat dissipation and the interconnect bottleneck in microprocessors has fueled the research into monolithically integrated photonic devices to alleviate these limitations. A large number of Si compatible devices have been developed; however, the size of these devices often limits their usefulness for integration into microprocessors. Therefore, these Proceedings focus on the properties of nano scale photonic devices, with the expectations that it will stimulate the development of novel devices and functionalities.

This issues features 25 peer reviewed articles that were organized into 7 topics: (1) Nonlinear optical properties of Si nanocrystals; (2) Radiative and non-radiative recombination in Si-based materials; (3) Silicon nanowires and nanorods; (4) Er-doped nanostructures; (5) Silicon-germanium nanostructures; (6) Photonic structures: Microcavities, photonic crystals and waveguides; (7) Si nanostructures for light detection and sensing.

We would like to thank all authors for their contributions and the reviewers for their prompt response and comments that have improved the quality of the Proceedings and were instrumental in finalizing the Proceedings in a timely manner.

We would also like to thank the scientific advisory committee, Prof. Minoru Fujii, Prof. Yasuhiko Ishikawa, Prof. Wolfgang Jantsch, Prof. Jan Linnros, Dr. Michael Morse, Prof. Stefano Ossicini, Prof. Tony Peaker, Dr. Richard Rizk, Prof. Margit Zacharias, and Prof. Zhiping (James) Zhou for their significant contributions through all stages of the Symposium organization and Proceedings preparation (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)