The lecture gives an introduction to the physical / chemical properties of surfaces and thin films and to the most important techniques that can be used to characterize surfaces.

Topics introduced: Preparation of well-defined surfaces, Geometrical structure of surfaces, Electronic bands in solids and surface states, Magnetic thin films.

Methods covered: Diffraction, Scannig Tunneling Microscopy, Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis, Spin-resolved Photoemission, Time-resolved Photoemission, Magneto-optical Kerr Effect, X-ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism.

In the tutorial we will analyze simple data and discuss few articles