The 3^rd European School on Crystal Growth will implement theoretical lectures, pedagogical experimental reviews and, for the first time, demonstrations on both computers and pulling machines -either during the lectures or during specific time slots- in the main branches of crystal growth: bulk crystal growth, thin films growth and epitaxy, biological crystallization. It will comprise 18 academic hours and 6 demonstrations hours delivered by some 12 lecturers over 4 days, all of them reknown experts in the domain they will cover.

The first two days will be mainly dedicated to theories of crystal growth: from the quantum mechanics to the statistical physics of crystal growth, with an introduction to phase field methods and Monte Carlo program applications. The classical Burton-Cabrera-Frank theory will be addressed, broadened by a general introduction to universality class behaviours that go beyond the mean-field approximation. Roughening transitions and epitaxial growth will be included in this program. Formation of microstructures, morphological instabilities will be presented within the framework of a “diffusion versus kinetics” model, with an emphasis put on in situ “model systems”. A specific lecture on in situ X-ray topography and imaging of bulk crystal growth will complement on the experimental side the theoretical lecture. Besides, bulk crystal growth processes modelling and numerical simulations by finite volume methods, which permit to solve coupled multiphysics problems, will be shown to constitute a tool of choice to their understanding and their optimization. Here also, the theoretical and modelling lectures will be associated to a general comprehensive review of experimental bulk crystal growth methods (Czochralski, Bridgman, and many others).

The third day will be dedicated to thin films growth and epitaxy. A lecture on the fundamentals of nanolayers growth will first be delivered, followed by a general overview on technologies and systems for thin film growth (including both “chemical” and “physical” techniques). The main limitations of each technique (thickness control, crystal quality, growth rates, phase stability, etc.) as well as illustrative examples of a particular system will be further developed. The epitaxial growth of thin films will be the object of a specific lecture, addressing the particular issue of obtaining epitaxial layers on a substrate (lattice mismatch, defect engineering, strain, superlattices, and so on). Then, a lecture focused on the characterization of thin films, assessing the techniques required to evaluate the crystallinity of thin films both in situ (during deposition) and ex situ, with a specific emphasis on epitaxial layers, will be delivered.

The fourth day will include lectures on biological crystallization. The fundamentals of nucleation will be explained, with the help of thermodynamics and kinetics, to emphasize its inherent stochasticity as well as specific space and time scales. The characteristics of nucleation will be illustrated through different experimental approaches, with considerations on nucleating material specific properties such as polymorphism, and on the interest of experiments in confined environments (microfluidics). While these first lectures on nucleation will touch upon rather “small” molecules, the subsequent lecture on multiscale protein crystal growth for advanced diffraction techniques and the current challenges it raises, will address bigger molecules and related crystals of bigger sizes.

As previously said, the lectures will include short movies or animations, some of them demonstrations with computer programs or small bench setups, but in addition to this, the first three days of the School will include a dedicated time slot for experimental demonstrations on Czochralski and floating zone image furnaces, on CVD combined with an in situ ellipsometer, on a controlled atmosphere RTA furnace-based deposition followed by ex situ ellipsometry, on a high-throughput membrane protein and cubic phase crystallization platform and on temperature-controlled/TG40, counterdiffusion/capillary and dialysis protein crystallization. 
Given the health and safety constraints we will have to handle, we have a limited capacity of 60 students for this unique and exceptional School.