SURFACE-STRUCTURE

Surface physics is a thrust area of research in almost all technologic ally developed countries not only because it has enabled us to probe b asic physical and chemical interactions existing in various two-dimens ional (2D) systems, surface physics has also opened up exciting opport unities to study surfaces and interfaces of materials which are techno logically important, To understand the nature of surfaces and interfac es, it is important to study its structure in atomic length scale, Two new techniques having atomic resolution, developed recently, to study surface structure, namely grazing incidence X-ray scattering and scan ning probe microscopy (SPM), has changed our level of understanding. W e shall discuss the merit of these two complementary techniques, which we are setting up in Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (SINP). This f acility will be first of its kind in our country.