The following article is based on the Outstanding Young Investigator Award presentation given by Peidong Yang of the University of California, Berkeley, on April 14, 2004, at the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco.Yang was cited for “innovative synthesis of a broad range of nanowires and nanowireheterostructure materials, and the discovery of optically induced lasing in individual nanowire devices.” One-dimensional nanostructures are of both fundamental and technological interest.They not only exhibit interesting electronic and optical properties associated with their low dimensionality and the quantum confinement effect, but they also represent critical components in potential nanoscale devices. In this article, the vapor–liquid–solid crystal growth mechanism will be briefly introduced for the general synthesis of nanowires of different compositions, sizes, and orientation. Unique properties, including light-emission and thermoelectricity, will be discussed. In addition to the recent extensive studies on “single-component” nanowires, of increasing importance is incorporating different interfaces and controlling doping profiles within individual single-crystalline nanowires. Epitaxial growth plays a significant role in fabricating such nanowire heterostructures. Recent research on superlattice nanowires and other nanostructures with horizontal junctions will be presented. The implication of these heterojunction nanowires in light-emission and energy conversion will be discussed. Ways to assemble these one-dimensional nanostructures will also be presented.

In spite of the enormous level of interest in open-framework materials (materials with porous channel structures, such as zeolites), the mechanisms by which they are formed are in many cases poorly understood. As a consequence, our ability to design reaction conditions that might lead to the formation of particular crystal architectures is quite limited. This article discusses the state of the art in this area, with particular emphasis on our joint work that was recently recognized by the 2004 S miya Award from the International Union of Materials Research Societies (IUMRS) and presented at the 2004 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting/IUMRS 9th International Conference on Electronic Materials.

The following article is based on the plenary address by Luiz Davidovich (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), presented on April 14, 2004, at the 2004 MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. The field of quantum information is a discipline that aims to investigate methods for characterizing, transmitting, storing, compressing, and computationally utilizing the information carried by quantum states. It owes its rapid development over the last few years to several factors: the ability, developed in several laboratories, to control and measure simple microscopic systems; the discovery of fast quantum algorithms; and the recognition that Moore's law will soon lead to the single-atom limit of elementary computing gates.Cryptography and quantum computing are among the main applications in the field.They rely on the subtle and fundamental properties of the quantum world: the unavoidable disturbance associated with measurement, the superposition principle, and the nonlocal properties of entangled states. Progress in this area is intimately connected to a deep understanding of quantum physics: recent achievements include the experimental demonstration of teleportation and detailed investigations of the role of the environment in the quantum–classical transition. This article reviews basic concepts and recent developments in the field of quantum information, emphasizing the close ties between fundamental research and possible applications.

The following article is based on the Symposium X presentation given by Bruce E. Kane (University of Maryland) at the 2004 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco. Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize our ability to solve certain classes of difficult problems. A quantum computer is able to manipulate individual two-level quantum states (“qubits”) in the same way that a conventional computer processes binary ones and zeroes. Here, Kane discusses some of the most promising proposals for quantum computing, in which the qubit is associated with single-electron spins in semiconductors. While current research is focused on devices at the one- and two-qubit level, there is hope that cross-fertilization with advancing conventional computer technology will enable the eventual development of a large-scale (thousands of qubits) semiconductor quantum computer.The author focuses on materials issues that will need to be surmounted if large-scale quantum computing is to be realizable. He argues in particular that inherent fluctuations in doped semiconductors will severely limit scaling and that scalable quantum computing in semiconductors may only be possible at the end of the road of Moore's law scaling, when devices are engineered and fabricated at the atomic level.