This symposium aims at covering some of the most recent advances and ideas in the field of surface science and engineering related to innovative solutions in concentrating solar power (CSP), concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) and hybrid thermal-CPV applications. In particular, it will be focused on research and development activities of coating designs, surface treatments and processes to improve the performance of key CSP and CPV components such as reflectors, lenses, receivers, advanced PV semiconductors as well as containers for heat storage for high temperature applications. New materials science approaches related to the development of metamaterials, graphene, oxides, nitrides and carbon-based materials with enhanced properties will be addressed.

The city of Phoenix and the Spring MRS meeting offer an ideal scenario to host this one-of-a-kind symposium due to the high number of nearby concentrated solar energy plants powering a significant fraction of the Phoenix region. The symposium is likely to count with the strongest support of the commercial sector, local and international universities, government labs and local authorities, and it will aspire to draw a significant amount of attention from the materials science community.

The topics of the symposium will cover, among others, computer simulation of new materials interfaces, modeling of optical properties using genetic algorithm approximations, multi-technique coating deposition including vacuum methods (electroplating, sputtering, cathodic arc evaporation, thermal spraying, chemical vapor deposition), wet chemistry (spin and dip coating, sol-gel) and other surface deposition and functionalization methods. It will also cover the use of advanced techniques for structural, optical, thermal, electrical and mechanical characterization (HRTEM, Raman, AFM, ion beam analysis, XRD, ellipsometry among others) with particular interest of in-situ methods for high temperature performance. A dedicated topic of the symposium will deal with new advances in scaling-up developments.