Preface: phys. stat. sol. (a) 204/9
Authors: Ristein Jürgen , Nesládek Miloš , Haenen Ken 
Published: August 2007

The 40 papers gathered in this issue of physica status solidi (a) give a thorough overview over different topics that were presented during the International Hasselt Diamond Workshop 2007 – SBDD XII, which took place from 28 February to 2 March 2007 at the Hasselt University in Diepenbeek‐Hasselt, Belgium. Since its start more than 10 years ago, the SBDD workshop has grown into a well‐established, yearly meeting place, addressing new emerging science related to the progress in the CVD diamond field. 10 Invited lectures, 31 contributed oral presentations and 45 posters were presented in several sessions during an intense two and half day long meeting. The success of this meeting is unmistakably reflected in the growing number of participants, presentations and submitted papers.

The number of participants reached 141 this year with participants coming from nineteen different countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, UK, and USA. The mixture of young and established scientists, including a great percentage of students, made this meeting a hot spot of lively discussions on a wide range of scientific subjects, not only during the meeting itself, but also at several occasions throughout many social events offered by the hospitality of the city of Hasselt.

It stands for itself that the workshop would not have been possible without the support of many people and institutions. For financial aid we are especially indebted to the Scientific Research Community “Surface Modification of Materials” of the Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO), whose incessant support plays an important role in keeping this meeting going. We also thank the Hasselt University for offering the lecture hall and infrastructure facilities, and Seki Technotron Corp. for sponsoring the poster reception and their presence with a table‐top exhibit. Finally we highly appreciate the active approach of the editorial staff of physica status solidi in this conference and would like to thank most notably Stefan Hildebrandt and Julia Hübner for their excellent and patient work, bringing the number of successfully published SBDD proceedings in pss (a) up to 9 in a row. We are looking forward to celebrate the upcoming anniversary next year!

To finish, we would all like to invite you to the 13th edition of the SBDD series. For the 2nd year in a row, a small revolution will take place. After last year's essential name change into the more general “Hasselt Diamond Workshop”, indicating the dynamic evolution of diamond as a material, a new venue with modern and excellent facilities in the form of Hasselt's Cultural Centre (cultuurcentrum Hasselt) was chosen to house SBDD XIII in 2008. Situated in the city centre, we hope that this new location will make this meeting even more enjoyable.

So, let's meet at SBDD XIII – 2008!

Hasselt Diamond Workshop 2008 – SBDD XIII

25–27 February 2008

cultuurcentrum Hasselt, Hasselt, Belgium

http://www.imo.uhasselt.be/SBDD2008

Erlangen, Paris, Hasselt, August 2007