The symposium will focus on the characterization, control and role of defects in soft nanoscale functional materials and systems, with a view to developing strategies required for top-down and bottom up assemblies of nanosystems and nanodevices. In addition to neat soft materials such as block-copolymers, polymer nanocrystals, quantum dots, and hybrid nanosystems such as nanotube dispersed films, we invite research topics that examine the issues at a higher level as in hard-soft interfaces for nanodevices (e.g. defects in nanoimprint or metal-polymer interfaces). Research strategies for driven (such as by electric or thermal field) and guided self-assembly (such as by confining walls) to obtain long-range defect free and high-fidelity media such as required for optical applications are equally solicited. Areas where defect control may be a requisite or an opportunity for optimizing nanostructure function are of interest as well, such as materials for controlled failure and auto-recovery. Our aim is to provide an exposition of the current state of the art on the topic of Defects in Polymer Nanostructures, in thin films and bulk and under processing conditions, with emphasis on experiment, theory, and modeling.

Papers are solicited in but not limited to the focused topic areas of the symposia:

• Nano thin film self-assembly process e.g. block copolymer ordering, dewetting, phase separation
• Defects at nanoscale material interfaces between polymers and inorganic or metallic contacts
• Application of external fields and processing to control defects in nanostructured materials
• Coarsening of nanoscale defects
• Transport and migration of defects in soft materials
• Nanoscale defects in coatings
• Control of defects for polymer based nanomanufacturing

Invited speakers: E.J. Kramer (UCSB), R. Register (Princeton U.), C. Ober (Cornell U.), P. Nealey (U. Wisconsin), G. Krausch (U. Bayreuth), M. Fasolka (NIST), S. Sibener (U. Chicago), A. Balazs (U. Pittsburg), C.Ross (MIT), S.P.Gido (UMass Amherst), A.Chakraborty (UC Berkeley), M.Schick (U.Washington), H.Fraaije (U.Leiden), H.Jinnai (Kyoto), J.K.Kim (Pohang U.)

Organizers' contact info: