Student Reports

The organizers of the NT06 conference have made a limited number of fellowships available to students, who otherwise would be unable to attend the conference. The recipients have been requested to write a brief report on the conference, especially on how the financial support helped them in their research.

These reports will, hopefully, inspire donors to sponsor a student to attend a future conference.

• Dr. Anton S. Anisimov, post-doctoral fellow, Helsinki University of Technology
  (Email: aanisimo@cc.hut.fi)

In this letter I would like to thank organizers and sponsors of Seventh International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes for the given opportunity of participation in this conference.

I am a post-graduate student at NanoMaterial Group of Helsinki University of Technology. I am working with synthesis of carbon nanotubes and I in this area not so long time. The NT06 was the international conference in which I took part for the first time. The participation in this conference it has appeared for me very useful, I have received a plenty of the new important information which I am going to use in the further work. Also acquaintance to new people, from different the part of the world was useful for me.

I have been really surprised as many people in the world are working with the same than and me. I am assured that in following year is conference will collect even more participants because as I consider, now this area of a science is one of the most important and perspective and as it seems to me, it is very important to involve it in this area of young scientists. Therefore rendering of financial support to students and post-graduate students has more value, I hope you keep this tradition and in the future. Once again thanks.

• Ilya V. Anoshkin, Ph.D. student, Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Russia
  (Email: anoshkin@gmail.com)

• Paola A. Ayala, Ph.D. student, IFW-Dresden, Germany
  (Email: P.Ayala@ifw-dresden.de)

With this letter I would like to thank the kind support given to me by the organizing committee in order to participate in the Seventh International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes.

The environment, as all the NT conference series, develops in a very peculiar way. I believe this relies on the efforts of scientist from all over the world that enthusiastically aim to contribute. It is a very encouraging experience as this conference represents a summit where most of the leading researchers in this area are present. I am convinced that any student, whose research develops in this area, would take a great advantage of the knowledge exchange available within the participants. Not only from the experienced nanotube leading researchers, but also from other students' background.

I am a PhD student from the PUC-Rio (Brazil) in a combined program with the IFW- Dresden (Germany). My participation in this conference, dealing specialized topics on the synthesis, characterization and applications of carbon nanotubes, has undoubtedly contributed to my actual research activities, beginning with the fact that it was possible to discuss widely about the excellent progress that has been made in the field. My current research points towards the controlled doping of SWNT and DWNT with heteroatoms. At this stage I am working in the functionalization with nitrogen aiming the control of the synthesis parameters that lead to better substitutional doping (sp2-like). We have contributed with some compelling evidence in the N incorporation profile according to synthesis conditions. The pioneers in the field positively encouraged the results obtained in our group in Germany, and innovative ideas were suggested.

I am looking forward to the next conference and I strongly encourage the students working in the nanotube field to participate in the next conferences of these series. I personally believe that the participation in this conference is essential. Any group that is closed and inward-looking cannot be at the forefront of nanotube science if it is not able to take part in global collaboration. I thank once more the organizing committee for the special attention given to the meeting preparation and I am sure the next conference in Brazil will be as successful as the last one in Nagano. Thank you

• Gavi E. Begtrup, Ph.D. student, U.C. Berkeley
  (Email: gbegtrup@berkeley.edu)

I would like to thank the organizers and financial sponsors of NT06 for their support in allowing me to attend the conference. This experience was invaluable for me. It gave me new insights into the frontiers of nanotube research, edifying me and benefiting my research. Most importantly, attending the conference has opened up new over-seas collaborations that would have been otherwise unattainable.

The conference organization was key to its success. I must applaud the specific format of the conference; invited talks were given one at a time and did not overlap the poster sessions. Combined with the relatively small size of the conference, this allowed me to see not a few, but all of the talks and posters. In addition, the relatively informal setting allowed everyone to interact equally, from big name professors to us lowly graduate students. I believe this format benefited everyone, as interactions on all levels boost scientific inquiry.

Of course, the research presented at the conference was top notch. Not only did I benefit, but I was able to relay what I saw at the conference back to my research group. Again, I must applaud the organization for getting the invited talks online so that we could look back over them and refresh our memories of what was presented. The greatest benefit was getting an overview of what the new frontiers, the cutting edge, in our field. Here are some of my impressions.

It is amazing that in this field we continue to see amazing new synthesis techniques. It seems that we are also just beginning to break the surface of characterization techniques. The new individual chirality techniques, such as aberration corrected TEM and advances in photo-luminescence, are absolutely astounding and may very well usher in new understanding of nanomaterials. It was also good to have an in depth introduction to graphene, which promises new and interesting physics. Finally, I was pleased to see an inclusion of talks on the societal health impacts of nanomaterials.

I feel that the research presented at NT06 covered the broad field extremely well and gave me insight into new branches of the science. I would again like to thanks the organizers for making my participation possible.

(14 November 2006)

• Brandon Fortino, student, Lansing Community College
  (Email: jinkguns@gmail.com)

Nanotube '06 was one of the most exciting educational opportunities I have ever had. If not for the generous financial aid and sponsorship of my employers, I would not have been able to attend. The conference was exceptionally well run and sorely needed in that it focused purely on nanotube based research and breakthroughs. The single session format, that is to say, only scheduling one talk at a time allowed anyone in attendance to experience the full breadth of information available without being forced to make difficult choices concerning which session to attend. This is only the beginning of what separated Nanotube '06 from any other conference I had attended in my academic career.

The talks were divided into two categories, invited and contributed. Invited talks featured information from some of the most distinguished researchers in the field, while the contributed talks often featured less publicized but extremely interesting research. The poster sessions were by far, the most educational component of the conference. There is no other academic experience more greatly rewarding then conversing and interacting personally with a presenter. For example a series of questions of mine concerning Raman Spectroscopy that might have otherwise taken a dozen exchanges via electronic email to answer completely was answered thoroughly and clearly in a matter of minutes.

This is the greatest contribution of Nanotube '06 to my education was not the power points or the posters, but the personal exchanges between real researchers, students and businessmen. Nanotube '06 taught me by far one of the most important objectives for a young student or researcher is academic networking. Nanotube '06 was designed around this principle of bringing people together. I did not fly from Michigan to Japan to view a power point, read a abstract or to stare at a poster summarizing years of research and study, but to listen, to talk, to question, to reply and even to laugh. In these modern days of electronic databases, the greatest source of information for a student such as myself will always be other people, researchers, students and experts.

Of the topics covered during the conference, of particular interest to me was that of synthesis techniques, including rate of growth and defects. I was also fascinated by the new work done in the field of methods of characterization, which remains one of the most required areas of research for commercialization purposes. The techniques moving closer the production of defect free and physically uniform samples was one of my greatest educational pursuits during the conference.

Finally, this being my first international conference, I was somewhat nervous about attending. I found that the conference organizers did a extremely diligent job ensuring that every possible contingency was covered. I have absolutely no regrets. I am looking forward to attending the conference next year without aid. I would recommend Nanotube '06 and the available financial support program to any student working in the field. Thank you for the opportunity of a lifetime.

• Anastasios John Hart, Ph.D. student, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  (Email: ajhart@mit.edu)

I am writing to thank the organizers of the NT06 conference for financial support, which helped with my expenses in traveling to and attending the conference in Nagano, Japan. Starting with the NT04 conference in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in 2004, it has been a tremendous opportunity for me to attend the NT conference series as a graduate student. I feel that the NT series brings together the foremost researchers in nanotube science and applications. These conferences offer unprecedented opportunities to hear from experts, discuss research topics, and cultivate collaborations, in both a focused academic and a relaxed social atmosphere. Attending the NT conferences has been a big part of my education about nanotubes, and the vibrance of the carbon nanotube (CNT) research community is a big reason why I will continue to work on CNTs as I begin my career as a faculty member.

My particular interest, and also the focus of my doctoral research, is the synthesis and processing of CNTs. While most advances in synthesis and processing which were communicated at NT06 had already been told in the literature, hearing about the current state of CNT research lets us realize the main challenges which must be addressed in the coming year. For CNT synthesis on substrates, Dr. Kenji Hata discussed the high activity of the water-assisted CVD process in growth of forests of single-wall, double-wall, and multi-wall CNTs. However, there is much left to understand about the mechanism of water action in this process, and more generally of the precise roles oxygen, hydrogen, and the particular carbon-containing precursor play in CNT nucleation and growth. Even at the exceptional "super-growth" result, we must substantially increase the areal density and growth rate of CNTs to make large-scale commercial applications of aligned CNT films. Chirality-selective CNT growth remains unfulfilled, and the relationship between the quality (e.g., defect density) of CNTs and the scalability of their properties remains an open question. Prof. Philip Kim presented a step in this direction: transport measurements of mm-long SWNTs, and scaling of their bulk electrical resistivity with length. Dr. Sivaram Arepalli proposed standards for assessing the quality of CNTs; such a framework is essential for comparison of CNTs from different manufacturers, and therefore to emergence of high-quality CNTs as a materials commodity. This is further enabled by advances in chemically-selective CNT processing as discussed by Prof. Michael Strano, and by understanding of potential toxicological impacts as discussed by Dr. Vince Castranova and Dr. Alberto Bianco.

As a point of suggestion, I would enjoy seeing more coverage on synthesis and processing of other types of nanotubes and nanowires (e.g., inorganic nanotubes and semiconducting nanowires, like Lars Samuelsson's excellent invited talk at NT05). These materials are often made by analogous processes and are being pursued for many of the same applications as CNTs (e.g. opto-/electronics and composite materials) and therefore relevant comparisons can be made to help broaden and unify our understanding of their growth mechanism and the most compelling applications. This may be a challenge to include given there's already so much to cover at the NT conference, so maybe it makes a nice topic for a satellite workshop, or for expansion of the non-CNT nanotube poster session.

• Agnieszka Iwasiewicz, Ph.D. student, Umeå University, Sweden
  (Email: agnieszka.iwasiewicz@physics.umu.se)

Thanks to the organizers (who awarded me a financial support), and the help of my supervisor in Sweden, I was able to attend the NT06, Seventh International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes which took place in Nagano, Japan. The conference was dedicated to the most recent advances in the nanotube field, just like the preceding conferences of the same series. In 2005 the NT05 conference was held in Göteborg, Sweden, and I could attend it because of the relative proximity to my university. Already then I realized that this is the most important conference in the field, presenting the most recent results of leading nanotube researchers, but also putting a lot of emphasis on promoting the work of young researchers and students, like me. I decided that I have to try to attend it also in the future. On the webpage of NT06 I have learned about the financial support for the students and after a simple application procedure I was awarded the support. It made it possible for me to travel as far as Japan and take part in the NT conference once again. The conference consisted of numerous oral presentations by invited speakers, but also many poster sessions. All the talks were very interesting, presenting the carefully selected highlights of the nanotube research, the state-of-the-art experiments and the new theories. They were completed by the poster sessions during which vivid discussions were held and I had an opportunity to learn a lot. I also got a valuable feedback on my work which was presented on a poster. I got to know many interesting people and managed to start the collaboration for my ongoing project.

• Hironori Kawamoto, Ph.D. student, Yokohama City University
  (Email: s045903e@yokohama-cu.ac.jp)

NT06 was the international conference in which I took part for the first time. Though I felt nervous very much and often failed on that day of my presentation, I was able to obtain good experience. In this brief report, I would like to describe how the financial support helped me in my research.

Now, I am researching the DNA-wrapped single-wall carbon nanotubes (DNA-SWNT hybrids). Recently, the studies of composite materials by the biological material including DNA and CNT came to be reported by various groups. Moreover, these composite materials are paid to attention aiming at the application. In NT06, I showed the humidity sensitivity of DNA-SWNT hybrids in air. The production of DNA-SWNT hybrids in solution has already provided unique opportunities for the understanding and applications of SWNT properties. However, relatively little is known about physical and chemical properties of DNA-SWNT hybrids, especially in air. This report is the first time that a clear property, i.e. humidity sensitivity, of DNA-SWNT hybrids in air has been demonstrated by means of Raman spectroscopy. I consider that this will provide not only significant sights for detailed understanding on DNA-SWNT interaction but also new possibilities for the applications.

In the research of this field, there are a lot of interesting reports, while it is often difficult to consider not only experiment method but also discussion, because it is necessary to unite various fields. When I viewed some reports at NT06, I was able to know various ideas for experimental methods, especially the experiment using living cells. In addition, I was able to discuss with a lot of researcher at my poster session and obtain their opinions or speculations, especially about the interpretation of Raman spectra for DNA-SWNT hybrids. Because I have never considered the ideas yet, I have received deep impression. Thus, these ideas will help my researching. During I listened to various reports in NT06, I felt that the research of the complex by biological material and CNT grew up as one category. And I felt that my motivation for own studies was increased by many excellent researchers and their researching activities.

As described above, I was able to obtain a lot of good experiments. This financial support allowed me to take part in NT06. Especially, this support helped in my registration fee. If I don't receive this support, I cannot participate in NT06 and might not have been able to obtain such an experience. So, I'm very grateful to this financial support. Finally, I would like NT organizer to continue this student financial support for other students.

• Kah Chun Lau, Ph.D. student, Michigan Technological University
  (Email: kclau@mtu.edu)

Acknowledgments:
First of all, I would like to thank the NT06 conference organizing committee for giving me student support to cover my trip expense. As an effective way to encourage more young scientists to attend this conference, I believed this student support can help more young new comers in this field (e.g. graduate students, young researchers, etc.) who are enthusiastic in nanotubes and nanoscience research, by giving an opportunity to explore and learn from the others from this annual NT conference. Last but not the least, thanks to all the local staffs and co-workers on conference site for their invaluable helps and hospitality.

From My Point Of View:
Overall, this is an excellent international conference organized by the organizing committee. The conference website is always up to dated, organized and informative. The registration and abstract submission site which acting as a platform in handling online registration, accommodations, online payments, abstract submission, etc. are secured, efficient and user-friendly in many aspects. The discussion forum on the web is rather interesting, and useful in encouraging interactive among all participants in different aspects.

As a newcomer in this exciting research field, the quality of NT06 Nanotube Tutorial which specially designed for the students and young researchers, in order to facilitate entry into this challenging research field, are high in quality and very well-organized. The free of charge of this tutorial session for all NT06 participants can be set as a good example for other conferences. Besides, another NT06 one day satellite workshop: CCNT06 which held in parallel session with NT06 Tutorial are found to be equally exciting, as posed on the web. Therefore in my opinion, it would be better if this special focus session can be integrated into tutorial session, instead of running in parallel session in coming NT07 conference. The overall flow of the programs as planned in schedule are well-organized, especially the special session allocated for each poster introduction are found to be very useful as an important overview to me. Furthermore, the pdf of all the keynote lectures, tutorials, invited and contributed talks which posed on the web, can be a very useful resource for us, who working on this field.

What I learned From NT06:
As a graduate student, who now pursuing my PhD degree in the area of materials theory performing First-Principles study of nanotubes and its crystalline bundles, the theme of the conference fits very well with my education, experience and future career interests. In my opinion, this is an ideal forum to learn and to have an overview about recent advances of nanotubes research. Specifically, the useful ideas and opinions which obtained during the talks and poster discussion sessions, help me alot to think about my research problems in coming future.

In general, the works shown in poster sessions cover many aspects in nowadays nanotubes research. Overall, the carbon based nanotubes are still playing a vital role in this conference. Integrity of carbon nanotubes research with other non-carbon nanotubes, nanowires, and other nanostructures research are still lagging behind, as compared to CNTs based research activities. Many important information can be extracted from these sessions, and several trends can be found within the progress in this field. For the works in the synthesis of nanotubes, CVD method with substrate is found to be the most popular among the other like: laser ablation and arc. Besides the SWCNTs and MWCNTs (including DWCNTs), the works on carbon nanohorns (NHs) is showing a good progress from synthesis to functionalization. Besides the tremendous progress shown in synthesis and mass-production of CNTs, several interesting works shown in dispersion, purification and chemical modification on nanotubes which are important in future real life applications have been found.

In terms of characterization of nanotubes, posters in Raman characterization are found to be in majority, as compared to other characterization techniques (e.g. STM, HRTEM, EELS, etc.). Many interesting works are proposed on providing useful information on phonon structures, besides electronic structures. Besides, in parallel with nowadays exciting research works in graphene, several interesting Raman characterization works have been found in graphene and nanographites. Therefore in future NT conference, we might expect these exciting improved probes of nanotubes can help us in understanding nanotube doping, electrical contacts and nanotube functionalization better for future real application.

In spite of that, the number of works focusing on nanotube based composites is found to be tremendously popular in this conference. On top of that, works on polymer matrices are found to be the most popular, besides SWCNT, MWCNT and VGCF fillers. In terms of transport properties of nanotubes research, several theory and experimental studies have been explored into several interesting topics in fundamental studies in this area: like electron-phonon coupling, effect of chemical doping, functionalization, nanotube/contact interface. In this conjunction, many works which are working towards the applications on filed emitters, FETs, interconnects, etc. are found to be quite promising, as adding new functionalities to current CMOS technologies. Last but not the least, the nanotubes research works which incorporated with photophysics like some recent advances in photoluminescence, excitons and optical applications are found encouraging in this conference. Therefore, I hope more exciting works can be seen in future NT07 conference, by continuing promote scientific discovery, device concept design and innovation.

• Ian Mortimer, Ph.D. student, Oxford University, U.K.
  (Email: i.mortimer1@physics.ox.ac.uk)

I write to thank the conference organizers and generous sponsors for the financial assistance afforded me to attend NT06: The Seventh International Conference on the Science and Application of Nanotubes, Nagano, Japan. I am currently a third year graduate student in the Physics department at Oxford University (UK) under the supervision of Prof. Robin Nicholas. The title of my PhD thesis is, ‘The magneto-optical properties of carbon nanotubes’.

The optical properties of carbon nanotubes have been studied intensely in recent years and it is now widely recognized that the optical absorption and emission of nanotubes are dominated by excitons. The understanding of these exciton states will therefore play a significant role in the development of any future optical materials using carbon nanotubes. Using high magnetic fields (up to 60T) and low temperatures (down to 1.5K) we are able to break the ideal symmetry of the nanotubes and qualitatively change their behaviour. Most recently we have utilised these high fields and low temperatures to observe experimentally the transfer between bright and dark excitonic states using photoluminescence excitation (PLE) maps. From our data we are able to quantify the dark-light exciton splitting and show that the majority of the transfer to the dark exciton states occurs within the spin-singlet band. This is, we believe, the first direct experimental evidence of this behaviour and as such presents an important discovery in the fields of both the electronic and optical properties of carbon nanotubes.

Attending the conference gave me the invaluable opportunity to present these findings to the wider nanotube community and in particular the theorists who also work in this area. Being able to talk to such distinguished researchers and receive their thoughts and opinions on my work was extremely rewarding. From these discussions I was able to form constructive relationships and have been in communication with various theoretical groups since the conference. This exposure and ability to from new research collaborations is something that will greatly enhance not only my research work, but my possible future career opportunities. Without the financial support given I would not have been able raise the funds necessary to attend an international conference such as NT06 and as such would have not realized these opportunities.

I once again thank you for your generous financial support and thank the conference organizers for putting together such a dynamic and rewarding meeting.

• Andrei Ollikainen, Ph.D. student, Helsinki University of Technology
  (Email: andrei.ollikainen@tkk.fi)

Nanotech is widely studied around the world. A lot of commercial interest has come up in the last 5 years. The numbers of publications and patents in the field of nanotechnology have been increased for over 450% during that period. Private investments have exceeded the public (by governments) ones. So what is “hot” and interested in nanotube technology these days? How to find the information from the same place in a short possible amount of time? The obvious answer to that equation is the NT 06 conference.

It was my first really big nanotech conference. I went there to introduce my ideas on making polymer/SWCNT thin films and composites for electronic applications. In advance I was interested to see other applications of SWCNT in polymer composites: separated aligned, random networks and so on. Also I was working on making active circuitry of nanotubes and I was surprised positively by the amount of application. By looking at them I realised, that I have to work now even harder. In the same time it was really reassuring to see the number of motivated people sharing their ideas and answering my questions helping me to gain a better understanding on how to approach and tackle a certain problems I have been hitting my head into for some time.

The other surprising thing was the amount of attention my poster received. That gave me a boost to go on with the research. I got a chance to meet a real people behind the publications. I made some useful contacts and we are keeping in contact via e-mail. I was so happy to get e-mails after coming back home to Finland. Our research has stepped up significantly through genuine corporations: we are not just pan friends, but doing serious research, where all parts are taking benefits from.

And one of the most impressive moments on the NT 06 conference was meeting real legends of the nanoscience. I was surprised on how easy it was to approach them and start conversation. Also I got a great impression on Japanese industry that is investing heavily in nanotech. In this way they are ensuring the strategic position. European companies should follow the example of Japanese as soon as possible.

And by humble thanks goes to the organizers of the NT 06 conference, and I am looking forward for the next NT 07 conference.

• Takashi Uchida, Ph.D. student, Yokohama City University
  (Email: s045910e@yokohama-cu.ac.jp)

I joined the Nanotube conference series for the first time. I felt that more active discussions were held in NT06 than that I had ever joined. I think that this is due to a consideration of organizers to participants.

I study the defects produced in SWNTs due to laser irradiation using Raman spectroscopy for understanding the defect structure and controlling the defect production. So far, it was found that the defects were successfully produced in SWNTs and the defects were relaxed by thermal annealing. From the thermal annealing, the activation energy of the thermal relaxation of defects was obtained. To know the theoretical studies of defects in SWNTs is necessary to discuss the thermal relaxation process of defects in SWNTs. In NT06 the theoretical studies on Stone-Wales defects or vacancy that I referred in my paper were presented. So far, I tend to refer only the specific value obtained from the theoretical calculation, such as formation energy and migration energy of defects. From the presentations, I learned the characteristic of the methodology such as DFT or TBMD. And I met Prof. Niwase who has studied the irradiation damage in graphite for 15 years. He knows very well about the irradiation behavior and the defects in graphite. I knew his paper but I could not follow his results well. I discussed with him about the consistency between the new observation of my study and his results. I understood his study well by discussion. I think that discussion is more useful to understand other researches than reading papers.

I depend on the scholarship from Japan Student Service Organization for sustenance. The scholarship was spent mostly on school expense and cost of living. As mentioned above, to attend the NT06 is very useful for me. But the registration fee was very expensive realistically. Therefore I am really grateful for the financial support.

• Teng Yang, Ph.D. student, Michigan State University
  (Email: yang@pa.msu.edu)

In June 2006, I attended my first nanotube conference held in Nagano, Japan and witnessed the best blending of enthusiasm for science and warmth from the host scientists. Great thanks to organizers and my advisor for the financial support which makes it possible for me to go across half earth to upgrade myself. I enjoyed very much not only the keynote talks, invited talks but also the poster discussions. My following report is on what I have learned.

a) Determination of nanotubes' chirality and excitonic effect.
Before the NT07 conference takes place in Brazil in the year of 2007, one SWNT with unknown chirality will be touring many physics laboratories around the world and will be analyzed by as many ways as possible for the tried-and-true determination of its mysterious identity. But how can scientists possibly make it work? In Nagano NT06, A.Jorio, based on the photoluminescence (PL) and Resonance Raman Scattering maps, proposed to assign its chirality uniquely by measuring radial breathing mode ? and resonant transition energies Eii. We refer them to the Kataura Plot for chirality. Work done! But there're problems to be thought over. The original Kataura plot based on the simple tight-binding model (only p orbital considered) is far from precise and unable to concern with the ratio problem and family spread problem, due to the deficiency of curvature, trigonal warping effect, and many body effects and so on. While the empirical Kataura plot based on experimental spectrofluorimetric study of 33 different nanotubes combined with careful fits is not so trustworthy either. And moreover it seems not certain whether working for bigger diameters. In Dr. Jorio's talk, he deals with the questions in the higher transitional range and diameters. The semiconducting E33 and E44 can be fit well with only considerations of curvature and trigonal warping effect, which hints a conventional band to band transition; while for E11 and E22 one more term has to be included in fitting, which he suggested, exhibits the excitonic effect. Interestingly the calculated excition binding energies is simply inverse linear dependence on the diameters, from which the size of Mott-Wannier exciton may go smaller if size of nanotube shrinks, then I guess, the screening effect for electron-hole pair may become weaker and Frenkel exciton takes over. Therefore it may be interesting to study excitonic splitting effects in smaller nanotubes.

b) Mesoscopic nGL (n-layer graphene film) and edge state in nanographene.
Low density of electrons and holes compensated with a very small effective mass or higher mobility renders the n-layer graphene film a newly and extensively studied system. Professor Peter C. Eklund, in his keynote talk, presented that Raman scattering is useful to characterize the number of layers of nGL, saying that the G bands and D bands will give out n-specific spectra. Philip Kim presented some results of nGL as thin as 12 nm about gate controlled transport and an experimental investigation of magneto-transport in single layer of graphene. The mobility is as high as 60,000 cm2/Vs. For graphene with open edges, or graphene ribbon, Dr. Enoki mentioned the combination of Fujita's and Klein's edges brings about the completely localized edge state in the Fermi level and nano-magnetism. The controllable nano-scopic magnetism switch by gas adsorption may be used as gas sensor.

c) 1d superconductivity.
It's been reported that the C60 single crystal will get higher superconducting transition temperature if doped by Alkali metal like potassium or others, and this may be explained by the lattice expansion from the dopants, therefore increases the density of state around Fermi level and results in the increases of Tc. And theory suggests that it's even better if placing the fullerenes into nanotubes (peapods). Whether there's still such a lattice expansion happening in peapods depends on the dopant sites (between peapods or within the peapods). Professor K. Suenaga from AIST presented visualization of ions trapped in side carbon nanospaces by means of HR-TEM and their results may encourage the realization of superconductor based on the nanotube peapods. Using the same method, he also presented fullerene derivatives insertion into nanotubes and got stronger interaction between fullerene and the nanotube wall.

What's interesting in prof. J. Haruyama's presentation about superconductivity in entirely end-bonded MWNTs is the importance of the inter-shell effect appearing from the competition between superconductivity and Tomanagai-Luttinger Liquid (TLL) states. TLL states were suppressed by the inter-shell coupling due to incommensurate of chirality and Cooper-pair tunneling was allowed. Therefore Tc is enhanced as the number of walls and the strength of the inter-shell interaction.

d) CNTs as quantum dot.
In prof. C. Schonenberger's talk, what interested me is the topic about studying the coexistence of competing Kondo effect and superconductivity in CNTs quantum dot. Kondo effect happens in the dilute anti-ferromagnetic materials with its local magnetic moment screened by the conduction electrons. The spin singlet state will be stable and brings about the logrithmatic dependence of resistivity on the temperature. But the cooper pair in the conventional superconductor is anti-aligned spin singlet and therefore will suppress Kondo effect. He did observe the suppression of conductance, but also see the enhancement in Kondo ridges with higher Tk. And he claimed that the energy for breaking a Cooper pair is less than that by the formation of the Kondo singlet, having binding energy of ~KBTk.

I am working on the 1d MoSI nanowires. I talked privately with Dr. G. Seifert about his previous work on the Mo6Sx related cluster structure and possible effect on MoSI if sulfer substituted by iodine. I also talked with Dr. Gunther Lientschnig from Hassanien Abdou's group about my calculation results and he shew interest in the magnetism appearing in one isomer and might want to testify it. In my poster session, it's wonderful that I could talk as many people from different fields as possible; their experiences guided me into different paths of thinking the same thing over and inspired me to go beyond. And as a summary, I have experienced one of the most luxurious conferences, got a lot of chances to discuss with colleagues, and more importantly achieved a network of cooperations. Again, great thanks to the organizers Endo sensei, Iijima sensei, Tomanek sensei and Nakamura sensei for this successful conference and for the generous financial support.

• Thomas Yuzvinsky, Ph.D. student, U.C. Berkeley
  (Email: tyuz@berkeley.edu,TDYuzvinsky@lbl.gov)

I would like to thank the organizing committee and the financial sponsors of NT06 for providing me with the opportunity to attend this excellent conference. This was my first time attending a Nanotube meeting, and I found it to be both an enlightening experience and a chance to build relationships with researchers from around the world. As a result of the presentations and conversations I participated in, I have obtained a much clearer understanding of certain topics -- and, of course, seeing all of the new results was fantastic!

I especially appreciate the time and effort that went into planning the conference. I was quite pleasantly surprised that for such a large gathering of people, everything went off without a hitch -- from talks to poster sessions to the (quite enjoyable) side trips and excursions. I believe the mix of both senior scientists and students at each of these events was key to their success, and I hope that financial support for students will continue in the years to come.