In nanotechnology and nanoscience the objects are in the order of 10-9 m. The properties are known to be different for a material in the nano-meter size compared to bulk. An important factor to understand and control these property changes is to gain insight in the electronic properties of the material, not only with high resolution in energy, angle and reciprocal space, but also with high lateral resolution. Photoelectron spectroscopy is a perfect tool for electron property studies; with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) it is possible to study the core levels of a material and acquire element specific chemical information and with angular resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) it is possible to map the band structure of a material. In order to make use of XPS and ARPES in nanoscience Maria Carmen Asensio et al. have developed a new technique where the light is focused down to nanometre size – defining the area studied with photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) to be in the nano meter size.
