The surface or exactly the topmost atomic layer is deciding on the surface chemical behavior of a material which controls effects like adhesion, wetting, bioreactions, catalysis etc. An inappropriate chemical situation at a surface can have a crucial influence on desired application or the lifetime of a work piece. As a Service to industrial customers we offer surface related problem solving.

Typical Problems which are related to surfaces are:

• Adhesion problems
• Coating delamination
• Coating delamination
• Inadequate wetting  (in soldering processes)
• Degenerating optical coatings in architectural glass
• Contaminations (in micro fabrication)
• Contaminations in the nanometer range on electrical contacts
• Grain boundary embattlement in metals and ceramics
• Surface activation of polymers
• Contaminations and quality control of implant surfaces

Surface Analysis will mainly be performed using XPS, AES or any other adequate analytical technique, depending on the problem to solve.

• Oberflächenanalyse im Nanometerbereich, R. Hauert, Fachartikel in Technica, No. 10, pp. 66-71 (1990).

• Interface analysis for problem solving in industry and research, R. Hauert, presented at ICMCTF-91, San Diego USA, 22-26 April 1991, Thin Solid Films 206, p. 323 (1991).

• Adhäsion als Grenzflächenproblem, R. Hauert und P. Hug, 16. Internationales Symposium Swissbonding, Ed.: E. Schindel-Bidinelli, Swibotech GmbH, P.O. Box 35, CH-8180 Bülach Switzerland, pp. 1-9 (2002)

• Chemische Analytik an Oberflächen und dünnen Schichten, EMPA Flyer 8.95 2000 28979/1