Editorial

This special issue is formed from a collection of selected papers that were presented at the 8th International Symposium on Nanostructures: Physics and Technology in 2000 (www.ioffe.rssi.ru/NANO2000/). The annual symposia are chaired by two Nobel Prize winners, Professor Zh Alferov and Professor L Esaki, and are traditionally organized by the Ioffe Institute in Repino - a suburb of St Petersburg. The Symposium was launched in 1993 by its Chairs as one of the first in an area that is becoming one of the leading and more important directions within modern solid state physics and technology.