Editorial

Beam based techniques to modify the structure and properties of materials are at a turning point: they are becoming more and more pervasive in terms of the materials which are studied and it has been realized that the most intriguing results come from the modifications confined to a nanometric scale. The present symposium has focused on such modifications which are induced by several kinds of irradiations: on the one hand high energy deposited in the electrons which relax their energy to the lattice (fs lasers, heavy ions in the GeV energy range, cluster beams in the MeV range) and on the other hand energy deposited directly on the lattice atoms (heavy ions and cluster beams in the keV energy range). The idea was to emphasize the link between the material modifications on a nanometric scale and the energy input on the fs time scale from both the experimental and theoretical point of view. To reach these goals our attention was focused on single event effects: single fs laser shots, single ion and cluster tracks (low and high energy).

The preparation of such an interdisciplinary programme would not have been possible without the help of a scientific committee composed of G. Betz (Vienna, Austria), H.H. Andersen (Aarhus, Denmark), C. Cohen (Paris, France), J. Schou (Roskilde, Denmark), Y. Lebeyec (Orsay, France), S. Klaumlinzer (Berlin, Germany), E. Balanzat (Caen, France), M. Hou (Brussel, Belgium). They selected the papers in order to build a symposium in which the present state of the art in this research area was presented. The lively discussions and interactions between researchers from different communities led to a clearer picture of the processes involved and clarified the areas where more detailed experimental and theoretical work is needed. A p&is of the summing-up talk given by Roger Kelly at the end of the Symposium, which is reproduced in the following article, gives some flavour of this.

Thanks are also given to all the invited speakers, the participants, contributors and referees who all played an essential role in the success of the symposium. The symposium was financially supported by the E-MRS. whose main Chairman was H. Habermeier (Stuttgart, Germany). Moreover, specific efforts were made by the Directors of the “Grand Accelerateur National des Ions Lourds” (GANIL), The Max-Born-Institute, the “Centre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche avec les Ions Lourds” (CIRIL), Trento University and the Consorzio Catania Richerche in order to support the preparation of the symposium and the participation of several scientists.

Eleanor Campbell Roger Kelly

Giovanni Marietta Marcel Toulemonde

Guest Editors