Virtual International Research Team (VIRT) is an initiative within the framework of the Project "Nanoscale phenomena and structures in bulk and surface phases" (NANOPHEN) supported financially by European Commission under contract No INCO-CT-2005-016696.

The aim of VIRT is to organize an on-line forum for accumulation and dissemination of information, discussions, new problem formulation and brain storming in the field of "Nanophenomena at Surfaces during Growth and Evaporation". This title is intended to include the energetics of the elementary processes taking place at crystal surfaces (surface diffusion of adatoms and larger clusters on terraces, interlayer diffusion of atoms, step edge diffusion, attachment and detachment of atoms to and from steps, step permeability, etc.), instabilities of growing surfaces against roughening due either to elastic strains (Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability, formation of quantum dots by Stranski-Krastanov growth mode, electronic growth), or to attachment-detachment asymmetry (Ehrlich-Schwoebel effect) at steps (step meandering, step bunching and debunching, formation of mounds on crystal surfaces), effect of surface active species on the morphology of growing surfaces, etc.

In this way we shall try to strengthen the existing contacts between scientists in the above fields of research. We hope to create new channels for scientific collaboration as well as to widen the thematic area of joint research activity. One of the aims of VIRT is to create a working international research team and prepare an integrated project to be submitted for financial support to the 7-th Framework Program of European Commission.

We start with settling a server: http://ipchp.ipc.bas.bg/Nanophen/Virt/.
This server is intended to create a pool of publications (titles, authors, abstracts and reference data), lectures given at conferences, schools, Institutes and Universities, books published in the field. The Bulgarian participants could also contribute with the knowledge accumulated during the nearly 80-years period from the beginning of the studies of crystal growth theory set in Bulgaria by Stranski, Kaischew and Krastanov.

The step meandering and step bunching induced by either electromigration of adatoms during growth and sublimation or Ehrlich-Schwoebel effect is of great interest. The reason is that the electric current effect on the morphological stability of vicinal surfaces of Si crystal is still a challenging problem, which is far from being fully understood. The complicated temperature dependence of this phenomenon indicates sharp changes in the mechanisms of sublimation and growth whose origin is completely unclear.

The instability of growing planar surfaces against clustering (the Stranski-Krastanov instability) is a problem with a great technological potential for application in optoelectronics. In spite of the intensive studies in the last decade many problems remain unsolved particularly the mechanism of the 2D-3D transition in the coherent Stranski-Krastanov growth and the mechanism of the electronic growth.

Studies of the elementary processes of growth and evaporation both mechanisms and energetics besides the importance of their own will help immensely for understanding of the kinetic aspects of the phenomena mentioned above.

We hope VIRT will contribute in focusing the attention of many researchers on the scientific problems outlined above. Authors publishing on the outlined topics are welcome to send the reference data of publications of their own, lectures and interesting and novel images of surfaces to the web page given above.

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