Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids - Vol. 322, Issue 1-3

This volume contains the Proceedings of the '4th Symposium on SiO2 and Advanced Dielectrics' held in Trento, Italy, September 16-18, 2002. Professor Maurizio Montagna (Trento University) and Professor Jean-Luc Autran (Université de Provence) were co-Chairs of the Symposium. The Symposium covered the following topics: Electronic and atomic structure; Defect generation and transformation; Electrical characterization and modeling; Photonics and optoelectronics. Following the tradition of the previous symposia held in Caen (1992 and 1995), Agelonde (1996), L'Aquila (1998) and Fuveau (2000), this edition kept an informal character and a significant space was devoted to the presentation of the work of young researchers and students, who represented about 40% of all participants. The majority of the participants were from Italy and France, but also several researchers from other EU countries, USA and Japan attended the meeting. A total of 83 contributions were presented, 41 as oral and 42 as poster presentations and this volume contains the papers related to approximately two thirds of the contributions. The symposium benefited by the very efficient organization of the local committee from both the Department of Physics of the University of Trento and the Trento Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies of the National Research Council. Moreover, it owes its success also to the generous supports by Programma Vinci 2001 of the Franco-Italian University, by the Universities of L'Aquila, Provence, Milano-Bicocca and Trento, and by industrial sponsors: Crisel Instruments, Jobin-Yvon, Physics Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Varian. Our deep thanks also to all referees and particularly to Professor R. Weeks for his accurate work during the editing process. Finally, we thank all participants and authors who contributed to the great success and lively character of the conference.