Special issue: Dynamics of systems on the nanoscale (2018). Editorial

Eur. Phys. J. D (2020) 74: 75 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2020-10134-4 THE EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL D Editorial Special issue: Dynamics of systems on the nanoscale (2018) Editorial? Ilko Bald1 , Ilia A. Solov’yov2,a , Nigel Mason3 , and Andrey V. Solov’yov4,5 1 Institute of Chemistry, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany Department of Physics, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Carl-von-Ossietzky-Straße 9-11, 26129 Oldenburg, Germany 3 School of Physical Sciences, The University of Kent Canterbury, CT2 7NH Canterbury, UK 4 MBN Research Center gGmbH, Altenhoferallee 3, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany 5 On leave from A.F. Ioffe Physical Technical Institute, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russian Federation 2 Received 4 March 2020 Published online 14 April 2020 c The Author(s) 2020. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract. The structure, formation and dynamics of both animate and inanimate matter on the nanoscale are a highly interdisciplinary field of rapidly emerging research engaging a broad community encompassing experimentalists, theorists, and technologists. It is relevant for a large variety of molecular and nanosystems of different origin and composition and concerns numerous phenomena originating from physics, chemistry, biology, or materials science. This Topical Issue presents a collection of original research papers devoted to different aspects of structure and dynamics on the nanoscale. Some of the contributions discuss specific applications of the research results in several modern technologies and in next generation medicine. Most of the works of this topical issue were reported at the Fifth International Conference on Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale (DySoN) – the premier forum for the presentation of cutting-edge research in this field that was held in Potsdam, Germany in October of 2018. 1 Introduction This Topical Issue focuses on an interdisciplinary research field that gains more and more interest in the last few years and whose community grows continuously – the dynamics of systems on the nanoscale. The nanoscale dynamics determines a wealth of physical, chemical and biological processes and applications, such as the macroscale properties of materials, the catalytical activity of interfaces and the interaction of radiation with biological systems. However, its exploration and description requires unified experimental and theoretical approaches from different fields across the physical, chemical and biological disciplines. Interatomic and intermolecular interactions determine the formation of nanoscale structures such as atomic and molecular clusters, nanoparticles and biomolecules, representing building blocks for further higher-order structures created by self-organization and self-assembly, and forming the basis of biomolecular and mesoscopic systems. Nanoscale structures possess unique and often size-dependent physical and chemical properties, which determine the functions of nanomaterials. The detailed ? Contribution to the Topical Issue “Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale (2018)”, edited by Ilko Bald, Ilia A. Solov’yov, Nigel J. Mason and Andrey V. Solov’yov a e-mail: understanding and description of these structures, interactions, properties, functions and dynamics represent a veritable challenge for theoretical and experimental techniques, and recently the term Meso-Bio-Nano (MBN) Science [1] has been coined to describe the endeavor to establish new methods for the exploration of the dynamics of systems along various sizes and time scales. A thorough understanding of MBN systems allows for an exploitation of novel phenomena on the nanoscale leading to an optimization of existing processes such as nanocatalysis [2,3] or the exploration of novel applications e.g. involving radiation. The latter encompass nanofabrication technologies such as focused electron or ion beam induced deposition (FEBID or FIBID, respectively) [4], novel light source technologies [5], and novel radiotherapy treatments [6,7]. In the meantime it became a tradition to discuss these topics at the International Conference “Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale” (DySoN), which started in Rome, Italy in 20101 . Subsequent events followed in 2012 in St. Petersburg, Russia (see Ref. [8] for the collection of contributions), in 2014 in Edinburgh, UK, and in October 2016 in Bad Ems, Germany2 (see also Ref. [9]). The most recent and fifth DySoN conference took place in October 1 2 www.dyson-conference.org epjd.epj.org/component/toc/?task=topic&id=772 Page 2 of 7 2018 in Potsdam, Germany1 , bringing together a number of scientists from around the world3 . A broad range of scientific topical areas in the field has been discussed in Potsdam: – The structure and dynamics of clusters, nanoparticles, biomolecules and bio-nano systems, – Clustering and self-organization on the nanoscale, – Cluster and biomolecular ensembles, complexes, nanostructured materials, – Surfaces and interfaces, – Nanoscale phase and morphological transitions, – Reactivity and nanocatalysis, – Irradiation driven transformations, fabrication and damage of MBN systems, – Biomedical and technological applications of radiation, – Thermal, optical and magnetic properties of MBN systems, – Electron and spin transport in molecular systems, – Collision and radiation processes, fusion, fission, fragmentation, – Propagation of particles through media. The next DySoN 2020 conference will take place in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy on November 23–27, 2020. In addition to the DySoN conference there are many other international meetings whose topics contribute to the knowledge about dynamics of systems on the nanoscale. Without pretending for the completeness let us mention here some of these conference series: The International Conference on Many-Particle Spectroscopy of Atoms, Molecules, Clusters and Surfaces4,5 [10], The Symposium on Size Selected Clusters (S3C)6 , The Symposium on Atomic, Cluster and Surface Physics (SASP)7 , and the meeting on Focused Electron Beam Induced Processing (FEBIP)8 . In this Topical Issue on Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale recent developments and advancements of the field are presented, ranging from fundamental research on elementary atomic and molecular mechanisms to studies on a more applied level, and covering innovative theoretical and experimental techniques. A particular focus lies on clusters and nanoparticles, molecules and molecular systems, nanosystems, collision and radiation phenomena involving MBN systems, and application inspired case studies. Most of the contributions have been reported at the DySoN 2018 conference and in this Editorial, we present a brief overview of all the contributions. 3 epjd.epj.org/component/toc/?task=topic&id=1068 epjd.epj.org/component/toc/?task=topic&id=716 5 epjd.epj.org/component/toc/?task=topic&id=1035 6 www.s3c.ch 7 sasp20.empa.ch 8 www.gla.ac.uk/schoo (...truncated)