The second international BaCaTeC summer school which focused on “Semiconductor nanophotonics – Technology, Physics and Applications”, took place in Würzburg from June 26 to July 1, 2005 . 67 scientists from seven countries participated in the summer school, with a distribution as follows: California : 17, Würzburg: 22, other parts of Germany : 13, France : 1, Japan : 2, Canada : 7, Poland : 3, Russia : 1, USA (excluding California ): 1. Most of the participants were doctoral students, with research areas closely related to the subject of the summer school. However, fourteen doctorate holders, two of them from industry, were also present. A total of 11 grants for the subsidy room & board were allotted to the participants from California and Bavaria .
The scientific program of the summer school started on July 26 with two presentations concerning nanophotonic materials. While the first talk presented the effect of spatial localization on the physical properties of charge carriers and photons, the second talk addressed the process of growing nanowires as well as their optical and electronic properties. On the second day detailed surveys of the concepts, fabrication and properties of photonic crystals was given, including their various application possibilities. As the summer school progressed, the epitaxial growth of semiconductor materials with pre-determined characteristics was presented. An important focus of the summer school addressed the creation and physical properties of quantum dots as well as their application potential. In this area semiconductor lasers, which play an important role in modern telecommunication were discussed including ultra-fast as well as high power lasers. In the second half of the week, also novel ideas concerning quantum information processing were presented and thoroughly discussed. In this context, topics like single photon sources as well as slow light, an approach for a possible storage of light, were presented. In order to teach this complex content a total of sixteen internationally renowned scientists from five countries were invited to the meeting.
The scientific part of the summer school included a poster session, in which over 34 posters on current research projects of the student participants were shown. In conjunction with the poster session many participants took the opportunity to tour the Technical Physics department and the affiliated Microstructure Laboratory on the Wuerzburg campus.
Like in the previous year, industry was highly interested in this year's summer school. In additrion to the financial support of companies like OSRAM Opto Semiconductors and nanoplus, whose core activities deal with nanophotonics, the summer school was included two lectures by a German start-up working on quantum dot lasers, NL Nanosemiconductors.
Events outside of the lectures included an excursion to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, together with a subsequent dinner in Castell, two wine tasting sessions and a numer of joint dinners in Würzburg. In addition, there was the possibility of attending an evening Mozart concert in the gardens of the Residenz. These extra activities were enjoyed by all the guests, and above all permitted the international guests to experience aspects of the local culture. They also served as a place to exchange knowledge between the students and the speakers.