edited by Antonio Cricenti (Instituto di Struttura della Materia, Roma, Italy)

This is the proceedings of a workshop which brought together researchers from universities and research institutes who work in the fields of (semiconductor) surface science, epitaxial growth, materials deposition and optical diagnostics relevant to (semiconductor) materials and structures of interest for present and anticipated (spin) electronic devices. The workshop assessed the capabilities of state-of-the-art optical techniques in elucidating the fundamental electronic and structural properties of semiconductor and metal surfaces, interfaces, thin layers, and layer structures, and examined the usefulness of these techniques for optimization of high quality multilayer samples through feedback control during materials growth and processing.

• Optical Properties of Excitons in Semiconductor Quantum Wells and Microcavities (L C Andreani)
• Optical Properties of Semiconductor Surfaces (G Chiarotti et al.)
• Measurements of Second-Order Optical Susceptibility in Crystalline and Porous Silicon (M Falasconi et al.)
• Giant Bilayer Hemoglobin from Earthworm Studied by X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (M Girasole et al.)
• SNOM and Spectroscopy: A Technique Beyond the Diffraction Limit (V Marocchi & A Cricenti)
• Theory of Second Harmonic Generation at Semiconductor Surfaces (B S Mendoza)
• Differential Reflectivity and Angle Resolved Photoemission of PbS(100) (M Tallarida et al )
• Deep-Level Defects at a Lattice-Mismatched InGaAs/GaAs Interface (O Yastrubchak et al.)
• and other papers