Dear Colleagues,

Over the past two decades, novel nanosized materials have been proposed at an increasing rate. They are expected to boost major advances in many scientific and technological fields as soon as their functional properties are identified. Ultrathin films, heterostructures, and nanostructured heterojunctions are continuously investigated as the building blocks for future devices; notable examples are 2D electron gas at insulator interfaces, applied to all-oxide electronics, carbon nanotubes/silicon hybrid junctions and organic perovskites applied to photovoltaics, as well as nanostructured oxides for gas sensing. Many of you have been already involved in these or related researches.

The advances for high-tech industry are so important that, more often than not, the devices are just investigated from the performance perspective, instead of focusing on the actual physical properties of the nanosized materials. However, in the long run, a good theoretical framework is required to make solid progress. In particular, the functionality of these devices is dependent on their electronic structure, which can be simulated with many theoretical frameworks and can be investigated through a number of experimental methods. In this regard, the most direct probe is photoelectron spectroscopy, since its spectra can be directly related to the structure of occupied electronic states; several other techniques can be applied as well, ranging from synchrotron techniques to local probes such as scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Hopefully, a good combination of experimental data and theoretical modeling will strengthen our understanding of nanosized systems.

This Special Issue will be devoted to the characterization of novel materials for solid-state devices and applications, with a special focus on the electronic structure. It is my pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript for this Special Issue on this topic. Full papers, communications, and reviews are all welcome, both theoretical and experimental.

Dr. Giovanni Drera
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• electronic structure
• ultrathin-film
• gas sensing
• photovoltaics
• photoelectron spectroscopy