Functional materials and nanotechnologies (FM&NT-2007)

The International Baltic Sea Region conference Functional Materials and Nanotechnologies (FM&NT-2007) was held in Riga, 2–4 April 2007 in the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP LU). The conference was organized in co-operation with projects ERANET 'MATERA' and EUREKA 'BIONANOCOMPOSITE'. The purpose of the conference was to bring together scientists, engineers and students from universities, research institutes and related industrial companies active in the field of advanced material science and materials technologies trends and future activities. Scientific themes covered in the conference are: advanced inorganic materials for photonics, energetics and microelectronics organic materials for photonics and nanoelectronics advanced methods for investigation of nanostructures perspective biomaterials and medicine technologies development of technologies for design of nanostructured materials, nanoparticles, and thin films design of functional materials and nanocomposites and development of their technologies The number of registered participants from 14 countries was nearly 110. During three days of the conference 70 oral reports and 58 posters were presented, 50 papers, based on these reports, are included in this volume of Journal of Physics: Conference Series. Additional information about FM&NT-2007 is available in its homepage http://fmnt.lu.lv and http://www.fmnt.lv . The Organizing Committee would like to thank all speakers, contributors, session chairs, referees and meeting staff for their efforts in making the FM&NT-2007 successful. The local Organization Committee would like to acknowledge and thank our sponsors – Latvian Council of Science and the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia. Andris Sternberg Inta Muzikante Guest editors