ABSTRACT
Characterization of sub-micrometer-to sub-nanometer-sized particles and surface features is essential for understanding their fundamental interactions and their behavior. In high technology applications across many industrial sectors, component and feature sizes are continually shrinking. The development of new materials for many of these applications involves particle interactions at the nanometer or smaller scale. At the same time, there is increasing realization that further advances in the medical field will require understanding of cellular phenomena at atomic and molecular levels. There is a need for real-time imaging of biological processes occurring at the molecular and electronic levels to improve our understanding of human physiology and of the breakdown in the human immune sys-
terns. This understanding will help in the development of the next generation of diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. As an illustration of the importance of characterization at this scale, recently, a new Advanced Materials Laboratory for materials characterization at the near-atomic level has been established at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the United States with stringent environmental controls [ 1, 2]. This laboratory sets the standard for developing, testing and demonstrating instruments for atomic-level characterization of materials.
