Preface: Phys. Status Solidi C 4/2011
Authors: Michler Peter 
Published: April 2011

The 10th International Workshop on Nonlinear Optics and Excitation Kinetics in Semiconductors (NOEKS 10) took place at the University of Paderborn from August 16–19, 2010. It was part of a continuing series of international workshops which started in 1987 in Bad Stuer, Germany, with the previous one being held in 2008 in Klink/Müritz, Germany.

The NOEKS 10 was perfectly organized by Torsten Meier and Artur Zrenner and their co‐workers from the Department of Physics at the University of Paderborn. The purpose of the workshop was to bring together scientists working on different aspects of semiconductor optics, to present and discuss new ideas, and stimulate an intense exchange between experiment and theory. With 165 scientists from 17 countries the participation was the highest of the last three conferences. This illustrates the continuing high interest in the area of nonlinear optics and ultrafast dynamics of semiconductors. The main topics of this meeting were ultrafast nonlinear dynamics, low‐dimensional and nano‐structured optoelectronic and photonic systems, solid‐state based quantum optics, spin effects, semiconductor‐based quantum information processing, and novel laser physics. The program committee selected 17 invited talks. In addition, 10 regular talks and 5 upgraded talks have been chosen from the submitted papers, and 78 posters were presented. Special attention was received by experimental and theoretical papers on quantum dots, their spin properties, optical and quantum optical properties including also their coupling to different type of microcavities, i.e. micropillars and photonic crystals. Furthermore, interesting novel results have been presented on different other materials, e.g. epitaxial graphene, organic semiconductors, hybrid organic–inorganic interfaces, as well as photosynthetic complexes and quantum plasmonics.

The conference took place in the main lecture hall of the University of Paderborn, allowing a smoothly running program in a very comfortable atmosphere. This setting stimulated many further discussions during the breaks. As a special program highlight, the conference excursion took us to the historic regions of Ostwestfalen‐Lippe and the Teutoburg Forest where we visited the famous rock formation “Externsteine”. Later on, we visited the charming city of Detmold where we attended a guided tour of a local brewery or joined a medieval guided city tour. The conference dinner was held at the restaurant “Schlosswache” in Detmold.

NOEKS 10 was sponsored by the University of Paderborn, the Center for Optoelectronics and Photonics Paderborn, the DFG research training group GRK 1464 “Micro‐ and Nanostructures in Optoelectronics and Photonics”, and the Mechonics AG. Wiley‐VCH sponsored a best poster award for a young scientist with a book voucher of EUR 200. The conference chairs together with two members of the program committee, Heinrich Stolz and Peter Michler, selected the poster entitled “Fluctuation Properties of Phonons Generated by Ultrafast Optical Excitation of a Quantum Dot” which was presented by Doris Reiter (University of Münster) for the best poster award.

Already during NOEKS 9 the organizer of the next NOEKS workshop (Peter Michler, NOEKS 11 to be held in Stuttgart in 2012) has been determined (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)