Quality assurance in nano-scale analysis

Some methods of nano-scale analysis are on the threshold of being a standard method in industry and therefore quality assurance becomes important. But, at the present time, there are deficits in standardisation and validation of these methods. Therefore, we have organised method comparisons and interlaboratory comparisons to overcome these deficits. We report the results of an interlaboratory comparison in step-height determination by atomic force microscopy and the development of a reference material for laterally resolving methods of material analysis. Received: 2 September 2002 / Accepted: 2 September 2002 / Published online: 5 March 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-30/8104-1827, E-mail: mathias.senoner@bam.de