Preface: phys. stat. sol. (a) 205/8

Advances in Transparent Electronics: From Materials to Devices II This issue of physica status solidi contains selected papers presented in Symposium I “Advances in Transparent Electronics: From Materials to Devices II” at the European Materials Research Society Spring Meeting held in Strasbourg, France, from 28 May to 1 June 2007. This was the second meeting in Europe covering this topic. It was attended by scientists from 33 different countries, with special emphasis to the Republic of South Korea and Japan (20% and 10%, respectively, of the total of papers presented). The symposium programme consisted of 9 invited talks, 45 oral presentations and 122 poster presentations, in total 176 contributions, from which 60 were selected for publication in the proceedings, representing nearly 35% of the submitted communications. Topics ranging from the fundamental understanding of physical phenomena to materials and devices have been covered, with special emphasis on the following ones: – Materials and processing for transparent electronics – Characterization and modelling – New devices (nano, micro and macro) – New applications The success of this symposium was the result of the contributions of many dedicated people. It is a pleasure for me to thank the symposium organizers (H. Hosono, Japan, J. Wager, USA, G. Kiriakidis, Greece, and S. Y. Lee, Korea) for their availability and help during the preparation and follow up of this symposium as well as all the individual referees, who donated their time to help making this a successful and scientific strong contribution for the international community on transparent electronics. I also would like to thank the two voluntary symposium assistants (P. Barquinha and G. Gonçalo) who helped before, during and after the symposium. Since the work is not limited to what was done before and during the conference, I also have to emphasize a detailed, delicate and long work that has been done after the conference was over, in close cooperation with Prof. Martin Stutzmann and Dr. Stefan Hildebrandt, for the edition of this special issue. I also would like to thank the E‐MRS staff (C. Kocher and S. Schoeffter) for the unlimited time, energy and professionalism given for the success of this symposium. Without their assistance the symposium would not have been the success that it was. I also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of our main sponsors who made the symposium possible: – FCT‐UNL, Portugal – Hewlett‐Packard, Ireland – Horiba Jobin Yvon, France – Canon, Japan