International Conference on Solid Films and Surfaces (ICSFS 2014)

Foreword The 17th ICSFS took place at the wonderful city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from the 8th to the 11th of September, 2014. The conference focused on recent advances in controlling and characterizing the physical and chemical properties of films and surfaces, with a particular emphasis on materials for electronic, photonic and spintronic applications. In addition, themes of bio-functionalized structures and devices were strongly discussed in the ICSFS, covering interdisciplinary nano and nano-bio science and technology. The conference has promoted, in various sub-fields of materials surfaces and thin films, an excellent forum for exchange of ideas, presentation of technical achievements and discussion of future directions in the field. In this volume of the IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering we are glad to present 11 peer-reviewed ICSFS contributing papers. The cross-disciplinary nature of conference topics is clearly reflected in these Proceedings' contents. The themes discussed ranged from those close to more traditional condensed matter physics, such as semiconductor surfaces to physical chemistry related issues. The Proceedings were organized in accordance with contributions presented at the Conference. We were glad with the presence of over 160 participants, including 24 invited and plenary talks and over 50 oral contributions. We strongly believe that these Proceedings will be useful for a wide audience of those interested in basic and applied surfaces and thin solid interfaces. Acknowledgment We would like to acknowledge the hard work, professional skills and efficiency of the team which oversaw the general organization, particularly of Dicom (Social Communication Division) from the National Institute of Metrology, Quality and Technology, Inmetro (Brazil). We also would like to thank all the invited speakers and session chairs for making the meeting such a great success. The Conference was supported and sponsored by Academia Brasileira de Ciencias, CNPq, CAPES, Inmetro, FEI Company and Carl-Zeiss Company. We are grateful for the commercial exhibition of several leading instrument companies that provided great financial support. We thank Altmann, Bruker, CAMECA, Edwards, Horiba, M&M Vacuo, Oxford Instruments, Renishaw, RHK Technology, and SPECS.