SIG-03 Activity Reports 2001-2008


Report 2007-2008

1. Introduction.

The activity of SIG3 concentrated especially to conferences and workshops. The most important conference covering completely our field was ECM24.

2. Past Activities.

Title: ECM24

Number of Participants: ~900

Sponsors/Organizers: ECA

Short Description:

The 24th European Crystallographic Meeting took place in Marrakech, Morocco, in August 2007. The chairman of the conference was Abdelmalek Thalal. SIG3 was responsible for the microsymposium MS39 “Beyond the aperiodic structures” chaired by Gervais Chapuis and Michal Dusek. Vaclav Petricek had a keynote lecture “Software for the refinement of aperiodic and incommensurate structures”. Very close to the SIG3 field was also the keynote lecture of Gabor Oslanyi “The charge flipping method: a new approach to solve periodic and aperiodic structures”.

Title: Quasicrystals – The Silver Jubilee

Number of Participants: 100

Sponsors/Organizers: The Commission on Aperiodic Crystals of the IUCr, The International Advisory Board of the International Conferences on Quasicrystals, The Israeli National Committee for Crystallography, Tel Aviv University

Short Description: Scientific celebration of the 25th anniversary of the discovery of quasicrystals, giving a review of the incredible progress from the achievement of D. Shechtman on April 1982 to the current state of the art.

Title: Workshop on Jana2006

Number of Participants: 10

Sponsors/Organizers: University of Copenhagen

Short Description:

The 3 days workshop on Jana2006, the new forthcoming version of the computing system Jana, was organized by Michal Dusek (Inst. Of Physics, Prague) and Tonci Balic-Zunic (University Copenhagen) in March 2008.

3. Future/Programmed Activities.

Title: 10th Int. Conference on Quasicrystals

Sponsors/Organizers:

Short Description:

The conference will take place in June 2008 in Zurich, Switzerland. SIG3 member are in the organizing committee.

Title: XXI IUCr Congress, August 2008 Osaka

Sponsors/Organizers: IUCr

Short Description:

IUCr – commission on Aperiodic crystals + SIG3 organises corresponding microsymposia.

Title: Aperiodic’09

Sponsors/Organizers: Commission on Aperiodic Crystals of the IUCr + SIG3

Short Description:

Sixth International Conference on Aperiodic Crystals

Title: The 6th workshop on Structural Analysis of Aperiodic Crystals

Sponsors/Organizers: University Bayreuth, Prof. Van Smaalen

Short Description:

Four days workshop on Structural analysis of Aperiodic Crystals.

4. Other matters.

The Web page of SIG3

The web page of SIG maintained by Michal Dusek,
http://sig3.ecanews.org/, contains information on forthcoming conferences, new or updated computer programs, main research groups on aperiodic crystals and many other information. Since 1998 it was visited more than 12,000 times. The page contains list of publications dealing with aperiodic crystals extracted from WOS with weekly updates.

The Web page on Superspace

Web page devoted to superspace (superspace.epfl.ch) continues successfully. It is maintained by Ivan Orlov and specializes to superpace symmetry, charge flipping and teaching tools.

Jana2006

New software for modulated structures is continuously developed in the Institute of Physics in Prague. During the year 2008 it will offer new possibility to refine modulated magnetic structures.

5. Five year ‘overview’, brief activity report (2004-2008)

During the last five years our activity was focused to workshops and conferences. In ECM and IUCr meetings we regularly participated in the microsyposia organisation and our topic was also covered in keynote lectures (ECM23 and IUCr XX). In addition, the following important meetings took place: The 4 thWorkshop on Aperiodic Structures in Bayreuth, 2004; The International Conference on Aperiodic Crystals in Zao, 2006; The 5th Workshop on Aperiodic Structures in Bayreuth, 2006. SIG3 web page exists actively over the reported period. It lists important activities, provides links to software related with aperiodic crystallography and keeps a list of related literature. In 2006 new web page emerged in EPFL Lausanne (superspace.epfl.ch) specialized to superspace symmetry, charge flipping and teaching. Two workshops about the software Jana2006 were organized in 2006 (Bonn) and 2008 (Copenhagen).

6. Estimated number of active members: 30

7. List SIG officers, name and e-mail, and specify their main function in the SIG:

M. de Boissieu Grenoble rf.te1711656972nerg.1711656972mcptl1711656972@ueis1711656972siob1711656972
G. Chapuis Lausanne hc.lf1711656972pe@si1711656972upahc1711656972.siav1711656972reg1711656972 Chairman
W. Depmeier Kiel ed.le1711656972ik-in1711656972u.nim1711656972@dw1711656972
V. Dmitrienko Moscow ur.sa1711656972r.syr1711656972c.sn@1711656972neirt1711656972imd1711656972
M. Dusek Prague zc.uz1711656972f@kes1711656972ud1711656972 Secretary
M. Farkas-Jahnke Budapest uh.ik1711656972fk.af1711656972m@sak1711656972raf1711656972
R. McGrath Liverpool ku.ca1711656972.vil@1711656972htarg1711656972cm1711656972
T. Janssen Nijmegen ln.ur1711656972.ecne1711656972ics@n1711656972essna1711656972J.T1711656972
S. Lidin Stockholm es.us1711656972.gron1711656972i@nev1711656972s1711656972
J.M. Perez-Mato Bilbao se.uh1711656972e.gl@1711656972mamep1711656972pmw1711656972
V. Petricek Prague zc.uz1711656972f@kec1711656972irtep1711656972
A. Pietraszko Wroclaw lp.co1711656972rw.na1711656972p.tni1711656972@mada1711656972
W. Steurer Zürich hc.zh1711656972te.ta1711656972m@rer1711656972uets.1711656972retla1711656972w1711656972
S. van Smaalen Bayreuth ed.ht1711656972uerya1711656972b-inu1711656972@hsam1711656972s1711656972
G. van Tendeloo Antwerp eb.ca1711656972.au@o1711656972oledn1711656972etnav1711656972.fats1711656972

Supplementary Materials.

  • none

Report 2006-2007

1. Introduction.

The activities of SIG3 concentrated especially on conferences, workshops and publications. The most important conference covering completely our field was Aperiodic2006.

2. Past Activities.

Title: Aperiodic2006

Number of Participants: 128

Sponsors/Organizers: IUCr – commission on Aperiodic crystals + SIG3

Short Description:

The five days conference on Aperiodic Crystals hold in Zao, Japan, in September 2006. The conference chairpersons were An Pang Tsai and Akiji Yamamoto. The number of participants was approximately the same as in previous conferences, showing that the field of aperiodic crystallography is still attractive. The program began with three tutorials given by Aloysio Janner (on the history of aperiodic crystallography), Lukas Palatinus (on the structure determination of incommensurate phases) and Marc de Boissieu (on the structures and fluctuations of quasicrystal phases). Topics covered classical modulated crystals as well as quasicrystals.

Title: ECM23

Number of Participants: ~1000

Sponsors/Organizers: ECA

Short Description:

The six days European Crystallographic Meeting took place in Leuven, Belgium, in August 2006. The chairman of the conference was Luc Van Meervelt. SIG3 was responsible for the microsymposium MS14: Structure determination of modulated and aperiodic crystals, chaired by Artem Abakumov and Michel Evain. Clivia Hejny had a plenary lecture about Incommensurate high-pressure and high-temperature structures.

Title: The 5th workshop on Structural Analysis of Aperiodic Crystals

Number of Participants: 32

Sponsors/Organizers: University Bayreuth

Short Description:

Four days workshop on Structural analysis of Aperiodic Crystals, chaired by Sander van Smaalen, was hold in Bayreuth, in March 2007. The lectures introduced the fundamentals of the superspace approach, Maximum Entropy Method (MEM), modulated molecular crystals and the application of superspace for the simplified description of complex superstructures and the method of charge flipping for the ab initio structure determination of periodic and of aperiodic crystals. The practical part was dedicated to the practice of the computer programs JANA2000 and SUPERFLIP.

Title: Workshop on Jana2006

Number of Participants: 25

Sponsors/Organizers: University Bonn

Short Description:

The 2 days workshop on Jana2006, the new forthcoming version of the computing system Jana, was organized by Michal Dusek (Inst. Of Physics, Prague) and Robert Glaum (University Bonn), at the University of Bonn in February 2007.

Title: The Web page of SIG3

Sponsors/Organizers: Institute of Physics, Prague

Short Description:

The web page of SIG maintained by Michal Dusek,

http://sig3.ecanews.org/, contains information on forthcoming conferences, new or updated computer programs, main research groups on aperiodic crystals and many other information. Since 1998 it was visited more than 10,000 times. The page contains list of publications dealing with aperiodic crystals updated o non eor two weeks basis..

Title: The Web page on Superspace

Sponsors/Organizers: EPFL Lausanne

Short Description:

Web page devoted to superspace (superspace.epfl.ch) was established in 2005 in Lausanne. It is maintained by Ivan Orlov and focus especially on superpace symmetry, with special emphasis on commensurate structures, and on charge flipping.

3. Publications

Two textbooks on aperiodic crystals were just published in the IUCr Texts on Crystallography series by committee members of the SIG namely:

Aperiodic crystals : from modulated phases to quasicrystals, Ted Janssen, Gervais Chapuis, Marc de Boissieu, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2007, 978-0-19-856777-6 (Hbk)

Incommensurate Crystallography : Sander van Smaalen, Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2007,978-0-19-857082-0 (Hbk)

4. Future/Programmed Activities.

Title: ECM24

SIG3 is responsible for the organisation of the microsymposium MS39 – Beyond aperiodic crystals. Chair/co-chair: G. Chapuis and M. Dusek.

Short Description: The aim of the microsymposium, is to show that the development of the superspace concept has some interesting applications on many aspect of structural research. In particular, the concept opens new perspectives in the study of modular and polytypic structures, in a better understanding of atomic interactions in crystals and finally in the design of new materials with specific properties

Title: Quasicrystals – The Silver Jubilee

Sponsors/Organizers: Ron Lifshitz. SIG3 members participate in the organizing committee.

Short Description: This conference is a scientific celebration of the 25th anniversary of the discovery of quasicrystals, to be in Tel Aviv, 14-19 October 2007. The incredible progress and great achievements made in the first 25 years will be celebrated. The conference will also give the opportunity to identify the main goals for the next 25 years of research on quasicrystals.

Title: 10th Int. Conference on Quasicrystals, ICQ10

Sponsors/Organizers: Walter Steurer, member of the SIG3 committee.

Short Description: ICQ10 provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest results in the field of quasicrystals and complex metallic alloys. Due to the interdisciplinarity of the field, the spectrum of invited and contributing speakers will include mathematicians, physicists, chemists and material scientists.

The conference will take place in June 2008 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Title: IUCr 2008

Sponsors/Organizers: Japanese crystallography association.

Short Description:

IUCr – commission on Aperiodic crystals + SIG3 are actively participating in the organisation of microsymposia. Keynotes speakers include members of SIG3.

5. Other matters.

We expect further developments of both web pages mentioned above. During the year 2008 the final version of the program Jana2006 is expected to be available.

Report 2005-2006

The main activity in 2005 was mainly devoted to our participation in the XX. IUCr congress at Florence. Vaclav Petricek had a keynote lecture entitled “Structure analysis of modulated crystals: trends and tendencies”. The lecture presented the current state of the art in structure analysis of incommensurate, commensurate and composite structures. Several members of the SIG on Aperiodic Structures of the ECA took part in the organisation of the program of the Congress (W. Steurer was a member of the program committee) as well as of four microsymposia.

MS 14 Modularity and Modulation in Inorganic and Mineral Structures was chaired by Emil Makovicky and Stefano Merlino. It was concerned with layered, modular and disordered structures. They are usually periodic, however, in this framework L. Bindi gave an excellent lecture ” Incommensurately Modulated Structure in Natural Melilites “.

MS 19 News from Incommensurate Crystals was chaired by Sander Van Smaalen Sven Lidin. It was devoted to the solution and interpretation of difficult aperiodic crystals. R. Withers gave a lecture “Flexible Local Crystal Chemistry and its (Modulated) Consequences “, J.M.Perez-Mato spoke about “Ordering as Occupational Modulations, and their Superspace Description “.

MS 26 Recent Advances in Quasicrystal Research was chaired by Koh Saitoh and Ron Lifshitz. We should point out lectures of M. de Boissieu on “Diffuse Scattering and Phasons in the i-Zn-Mg-Sc Phase and its 1/1 Approximant” and of G.Krauss on “A High Pressure High Temperature Study of Co-rich d-Al-Co-Ni”.

MS 83 Computational Problems and Solutions for Aperiodic Crystals was chaired by Christer Svensson and Vincent Favre-Nicolin. M. Dusek had a lecture “Towards the Routine Application of Computing System Jana2000”. New computation methods were presented by S. van Smaalen (“Modulation Functions of Aperiodic Crystals Determined by the Maximum Entropy Method”) and L. Palatinus (“Ab Initio Solution of Incommensurately Modulated Structures by Charge Flipping”). I. Orlov spoke about “New Tool Based on the Superspace Concept to Discover Structure Relations “. G. Chapuis had a lecture “Towards a Web-Based Interactive Environment for the Teaching of Crystallography” in MS96.

Sander van Smaalen and Ray L. Withers chaired workshop No 4 “Structural analysis of Aperiodic Crystals”. This workshop which took place in the beginning of the IUCr meeting, was intended to give an overview of crystallographic analysis of incommensurately modulated crystals, incommensurate composite crystals, polytypes and quasicrystals. Introductory lectures will presented the basic phenomena related to aperiodic order, including diffraction and morphology, and the fundamental principles of the superspace description.

A meeting of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Aperiodic Structures of the ECA took place during the IUCr congress. The current members of SIG are M. de Boissieu (Grenoble), G. Chapuis (Lausanne, chairman), W. Depmeier (Kiel), V. Dmitrienko (Moscow), M. Dusek (Prague, secretary), M. Farkas-Jahnke (Budapest), T. Janssen (Nijmegen), S. Lidin (Stockholm), J.M. Perez-Mato (Bilbao), V. Petricek (Prague), A. Pietraszko (Wroclaw), W. Steurer (Zurich), S. van Smaalen (Bayreuth) and G. van Tendeloo (Antwerp). Michal Dusek is the new secretary.

The members of our special interest group were also actively involved in the preparation of Aperiodic 2006. This event takes place every three years and in 2006, will take place in Sendai (Japan). The list of the International Advisory Board (S. van Smaalen (Germany), G. Chapuis(Switzerland), R. L. Withers (Australia), J. M. Perez-Mato (Spain), D. Pandey (India), M. Widom (USA), M. de Boissieu (France), W. Steurer (Switzerland), K. Niizeki (Japan), R. McGrath (UK), S. Lidin (Sweden)) shows that a large number of members belong to our SIG.

Our SIG was also involved in the organisation of the ECM23 conference in Leuven (Belgium). A plenary lecture will be given by C. Hejny on incommensurate high pressure and high temperature group VI elements and a microsymposium will be dedicated to the structure determination of modulated and aperiodic crystals. Three members of the SIG (T. Janssen, G. Chapuis & M. de Boissieu) are working on the final version of a new textbook untitled “Aperiodic Crystals, From Modulated Phases to Quasicrystals”. The textbook is expected to appear by the end of 2006 and will be published by Oxford University Press, Oxford.

The web page of SIG maintained by Michal Dusek, http://sig3.ecanews.org/ , contains information on forthcoming conferences, new or updated computer programs, main research groups on aperiodic crystals and many other information. Since 1998 it was visited 9400 times. In 2005 we re-established list of publications dealing with aperiodic crystals. The old one was using OVID database that was no longer available. Now we utilize WOS database and the list is updated approximately once a week. The gap from 2004 was filled, too, so that the list is complete from September 1998.

New web pages related to aperiodic structures was established in Lausanne. Its address is http://superspace.epfl.ch and is maintained by Ivan Orlov with full support of Gervais Chapuis. It is focused especially on the superpace symmetry, with special emphasis on commensurate structures. In this web page the latest version of the charge flipping program of L. Palatinus is also available.

Prag, July 06
Michal Dusek, SIG #3 Secretary

Report 2004-2005

Prof. Gervais Chapuis and Dr. Václav Petříček were invited to BCA meeting at Manchester to deliver introductory lectures in the session devoted to modulated crystals. The session has been organized by Dr. Simon Parsons. During the meeting a practical presentation has been given of the system of computer programs Jana2000.

The main activity for 2004 was our participation in the ECM22 at Budapest. Our SIG had one plenary lecture by Prof. Sander van Smaalen entitled “The Electron Density of Periodic and Aperiodic Crystals as Studied by the Maximum Entropy Method” presenting new possibilities for application of MEM in modern crystallography – charge density studies and modulated structures. The lecture has been very positively accepted by the audience and the discussion showed that the subject is perspective.

Our SIG has organized two Microsymposia at the ECM22. Microsymposium MS11 “Modulated structures” was chaired by Dr. Václav Petříček and Prof. Maria Farkas-Jahnke. This session was devoted to the legacy of Prof. Peter M. de Wolff. The first introductory lecture by Prof. Aloysio Janner was not only devoted to historical remarks but treated also to new aspects of the higher dimensional approach to different structural problems. The second introductory lecture was presented by Prof. Luis Elcoro. He showed how the 5D approach can be used to describe vacancy ordering. The remaining lectures by Dr. Ivan Orlov, Dr. Olivier Perez and Prof. Sven Lidin showed other practical applications of the superspace theory.

Microsymposium MS12 was fully devoted to quasicrystals. There were five invited speakers and they gave the following lectures:

  • Eiji Abe (Tsukuba, Japan), Direct imaging of phason-related disorders in decagonal Al-Ni-Co by scanning transmission electron microscopy,
  • Patrica Thiel (Ames, USA), Growth of metal films on quasicrystals,
  • Valerie Demange (Nancy, France), Crystallographic defects in approximants of quasicrystals
  • Ted Janssen (Nijmegen, The Netherlands), Interplay of periodicity and aperiodicity for the physical properties of aperiodic crystals.
  • Walter Steurer (Zurich, Switzerland), Structural ordering of decagonal Al-Co-Ni.

The speakers represented the leading centres of scientific research on quasicrystals in Europe, Japan and USA. After the lectures a discussion devoted to actual problems on quasicrystals took place.

A meeting of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Aperiodic Structures of the ECA took place during the ECM22. Prof. Gervais Chapuis (Lausanne) was elected as the new chairman of SIG#3. Two members of the board, Francoise Denoyer and Krzystof Parlinski, have let us know that they would like to stop their membership. Vaclav Petricek, with the strong help of Michal Dusek, is willing to continue as the secretary of SIG. We expect in the near future, to elect a new board member from the QC research community.

The current members of the SIG are

Marc de Boissieu (FR), Gervais Chapuis (CH), Wulf Depmeier (DE), Vladimir Dmitrienko (RU), Maria Farkas-Jahnke (HU), Ted Janssen (NL), Sven Lidin (SU), Manuel Perez Mato (ES), Vaclav Petricek (CZ), Adam Petraszko (PL), Walter Steurer (CH), Sander van Smaalen (GE) and Gustaf van Tendeloo (BE).

Several members of the SIG on Aperiodic Structures of the ECA take part in the organisation of the program of the XX Congress of the IUCr, that will take place from 23 through 31 August 2005 in Florence. W. Steurer is member of the program committee, a Keynote lecture will be presented by V. Petricek, and three microsymposia on aperiodic crystals are organized: MS19 “news from incommensurate crystals,” chaired by Sander van Smaalen and Sven Lidin; MS26 “Recent Advances in Quasicrystal Research,” chaired by Koh Saitoh and Ron Lifshitz; and MS83 “Computational Problems and Solutions for Aperiodic Crystals,” chaired by Christer Svensson and Vincent Favre-Nicolin.

The SIG has its own well established WEB page maintained by Dr. Michal Dusek in Praha (Prague), http://sig3.ecanews.org/. The page contains information on forthcoming conferences, new papers related to the subject of common interest, new computer programs or new versions of standard programs. The page has several links to the related WEB pages such as those of the IUCr, on Quasicrystals, etc. Since 1998 already more than 8000 visitors consulted the site. Formerly this page also included list of publications dealing with aperiodic crystals. This was done in a semi-automatic way using OVID database in Lausanne. This database is no longer available but we plan to utilize WOS database instead.

 

Report 2003-2004
July  2004

In 2003 the SIG of the European Crystallographic Association on Aperiodic Structures met during the Aperi-odic2003, 8-13 September, Belo Horizonte. The previous activities and plans for next year were discussed. The conference was the most important activity of our SIG in this year. The chair of the organising commit-tee was Prof. Nivaldo L. Speziali from Brazil. Several SIG members were taking part in the preparation of the program. The conference was attended by 90 participants. The tutorial lectures covered the mathematical theory of diffraction, the dynamics of aperiodic crystals (phasons) and the superspace description of the modulated and composite compounds. The lectures about quasicrystals concerned phason dynamics, the elec-tronic structure, symmetry aspects, surface and magnetic properties and frustration of magnetic order on qua-siperiodic lattices. In the field of incommensurately modulated and composite structures the key lectures concerned solution of new structures, usage of discontinuous functions and diffuse scattering. New in this field is utilization of the maximal entropy method.

The SIG has its own well established WEB page maintained by Dr. Michal Dusek in Praha (Prague), http://sig3.ecanews.org/. The page is public, and it contains information on forthcoming conferences, new papers related to the subject of common interest, new computing programs or new versions of standard programs. The page has several links to the related WEB pages such as those of the IUCr, on Quasicrystals, etc. Since 1998 already more than 6800 visitors consulted the site. Formerly this page also included list of publications dealing with aperiodic crystals. This was done in a semi-automatic way using OVID database in Lausanne. This database is no longer available but we plan to utilize WOS database in-stead.

In March 6-8 2003 the fourth workshop about the ‘Structural analysis of incommensurately modulated crys-tals and composite crystals’ was held at the Laboratory for Crystallography of the University of Bayreuth (Germany). Organiser was Prof. Sander van Smaalen. This workshop was made possible by the support of the German Crystallographic Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Kristallographie) and its special interest group ‘AperiodicCrystals’. We could welcome 42 participants from nine different countries in Europe and the USA. During the three days of this workshop lectures introduced the basic elements of the theory needed to understand the atomic structure of aperiodic crystals. In the afternoons, the participants had the opportunity to practice the structural analysis of incommensurate crystals with the computer program JANA 2000.

During the 34th Crystallographic school at Erice 4-15 June 2003, devoted to the Crystallography under high pressure, two lectures as an introduction to the structure analysis of modulated structures have been presented by Dr. Vaclav Petricek. Several other contributions (Dr. Malcolm McMahon, Dr. Clivia Hejny) documented increasing of importance of the structure analysis of modulated crystals.

The micro-symposia “New developments in the field of aperiodic crystals” has been prepared and organized by Prof. Gervais Chapuis and Prof. Walter Steurer during the International Meeting ECM21 August 24-29 August at Durban, South Africa. The topics covered by the four invited speakers included surface growth on quasicrystalline templates, the study of defects in complex quasicrystalline phases and the growth and struc-ture of misfit layer oxides. In addition, the extension of the superspace concept applied to the description of hexagonal perowskites was also presented. The micro-symposium was well attended and was completed by a poster session in various topics related to aperiodic crystallography.

Prof. Gervais Chapuis and Dr. V?clav Pet???ek were invited to BCA meeting at Manchester to deliver an in-dicatory lectures for the session devoted to modulated crystals. The session has been organized by Dr. Simon Parsons. During the meeting a practical presentation of the system Jana2000 has been done.

The main activity for 2004 is our active participation in the ECM22 at Budapest. Our SIG will have one ple-nary lecture by Prof. Sander van Smaalen. Moreover we are preparing two sessions “Modulated structures” and “Quasicrystals”. The first one will is organized by Dr. V?clav Pet???ek and Maria Farkas-Jahnke and the second one by Prof. Janusz Wolny and Prof. Walter Steurer.

 

SIG 3#  Report 2002-2003
July  2003

In 2003 the SIG of the European Crystallographic Association on Aperiodic Structures will meet during the Aperiodic2003, 8-13 September, Belo Horizonte. The previous activities and plans for next year were discussed. The conference is the most important activity of our SIG in this year. The chair of the organising committee if Prof. Nivaldo L. Speziali from Brazil. Several SIG members are taking part in the preparation of the program.

The SIG has its own well established WEB page maintained by Dr. Michal Dusek in Praha (Prague), http://sig3.ecanews.org/. The page is public, and it contains information on forthcoming conferences, new papers related to the subject of common interest, new computing programs or new versions of standard programs. The page has several links to the related WEB pages such as those of the IUCr, on Quasicrystals, etc. Since 1998 already more than 5800 visitors consulted the site.

In March 6-8 2003 the fourth workshop about the ‘Structural analysis of incommensurately modulated crystals and composite crystals’ was held at the Laboratory for Crystallography. This workshop was made possible by the support of the German Crystallographic Association (Deutsche Gesellschaft f?r Kristallographie) and its special interest group ‘AperiodicCrystals’. We could welcome 42 participants from nine different countries in Europe and the USA. During the three days of this workshop lectures introduced the basic elements of the theory needed to understand the atomic structure of aperiodic crystals. In the afternoons, the participants had the opportunity to practice the structural analysis of incommensurate crystals with the computer program JANA 2000.

During the 34th Crystallographic school at Erice 4-15 June 2003, devoted to the Crystallography under high pressure, two lectures as an introduction to the structure analysis of modulated structures have been presented by Dr. Vaclav Petricek. Several other contributions (Dr. Malcolm McMahon, Dr. Clivia Hejny) documented increasing of importance of the structure analysis of modulated crystals.

For the International Meeting ECM21 August 24-29 August at Durban, South Africa the micro-symposia “New developments in the field of aperiodic crystals” are being prepared by Prof. Geravis Chapuis and Prof. Walter Steurer.

SIG 3#  Report 2001-2002
July  2002

In 2001 the SIG of the European Crystallographic Association on Aperiodic Structures met during the ECM20 in Krakow. The previous activities and plans for next year were discussed.

The SIG has its own well established WEB page maintained by Dr. Michal Dusek in Praha (Prague), http://sig3.ecanews.org/. The page is public, and it contains information on forthcoming conferences, new papers related to the subject of common interest, new computing programs or new versions of standard programs. The page has several links to the related WEB pages such as those of the IUCr, on Quasicrystals, etc. Since 1998 already 4437 visitors consulted the site.

Proceedings of the Aperiodic 2000 conference appeared published by Ferroelectric, with guest editors A. Fasolino and T. Janssen. Although the Aperiodic conferences are organized under the auspices of a commission of the IUCr the contribution of SIG members is important.

The conference DGK 2001 held in Bayreuth was organized by Prof. Sander van Smaalen. One of the plenary lectures devoted to modulated structure was presented by Dr. Vaclav Petricek. Moreover during the session on Aperiodic crystals were presented 6 lectures and 16 posters.

At the ECM20 in Krakow, two plenary lectures and two sessions on Aperiodic Crystals were presented. Prof. Gervais Chapuis gave a plenary lecture on “Crystallography of Modulated Structures in Superspace”. The second plenary lecture was given by Prof. D. Gratias on “Structural Aspects of Quasicrystals”. During the first session on “Incommensurate Modulated Structures” chaired by Prof. Walter Steurer (Chairman) and Dr. W.Sikora five lectures were presented. The most interesting ones were the lectures given by Prof. J.M.Perez-Mato on “Composite vs. modulation description of incommensurate or long-period structures” and by Dr. Michal Dusek on “More dimensional crystallography in Jana2000”. The second session on “Quasicrystals” was organized by Prof. Janucz Wolny and Ted Janssen. Among five lectures we should mention the one presented by Dr. Marc de Boissieu : “Phason fluctuations in I-AlPdRe and I-CdYb phases” and one by V.E.Dmitrienko “Silicon and Carbon Structures Related with Quasicrystals”. Moreover during the meeting 15 posters having connection to Aperiodic crystals were exhibited.

The International Conference on Aperiodic Structures took place at Krynica – Poland, from August 31 to September 5, 2001. It was the satellite meeting of ECM20 (Krak?, 25-31 August 2001). The Conference was organised by Prof. Janusz Wolny from the Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques, University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow-Poland. The aim of the Conference was to present the recent scientific achievements for aperiodic structures (both theoretical and experimental results), and in particular for quasicrystals. There were 60 participants from 13 countries. The conference programme consisted of 37 oral presentations (27 were invited talks) and 18 poster presentations. A book of conference materials with extended abstracts or full papers presented during the conference was issued just before the conference.

For the International Meeting of the IUCr in Geneva two micro-symposia were prepared:
Diffraction and symmetry aspects of aperiodic crystals (Ohmasa and de Boissieu),
Diffraction from non-periodic structures (Chapuis and Janssen).

The SIG keeps an eye on the regular organisation of courses on crystallography of aperiodic crystals. In the last few years the gap was filled by courses at the University of Bayreuth (van Smaalen).

SIG 3#  Report 2000-2001
21 August 2000

From
T. Janssen 

The SIG has its own well established WEB page maintained by Dr. Michal Dusek in Praha (Prague), http://sig3.ecanews.org/, that contains the best and most up to date information about the SIG Aperiodic Crystals. The page is public and it contains, in addition, information on forthcoming conferences, new papers related to the subject of common interest, new computing programs or new versions of standard programs. The page has several links to the related WEB pages such as those of the IUCr, on Quasicrystals, etc. The page is widely used.