Microstructure surface texture is studied with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope operated at atmospheric air pressure. A standardization procedure for surface microstructure is proposed. We introduce two parameters in order to characterize surface areas in the micrometre and submicrometre range, which we term "granular roughness" and "microroughness". Measurements of a class "0" standard block gauge give a granular roughness R, value of 0.02 pm.

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We demonstrate an x-ray laser at a wavelength of 13.9 nm with a beam divergence of 0.2 mrad, which is 1.8 times the diffraction limit. The x-ray laser is generated with two gain media; the seed x-ray pulse from the first medium is amplified in the second medium. The effect of refraction on x-ray propagation is reduced by spatially and temporally controlling the injection of the seed x-ray to the second medium.

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A study of proton emission from a 3-μm-thick Ta foil target irradiated by p-, s-, and circularly polarized laser pulses with respect to the target plane has been carried out. Protons with energies up to 880keV were observed in the target normal direction under the irradiation by the p-polarized laser pulse, which yielded the highest efficiency for proton emission. In contrast, s- and circularly polarized laser pulses gave the maximum energies of 610 and 680keV, respectively. The difference in the maximum energy between the p- and s-polarized cases was associated with the difference between the sheath fields estimated from electron spectra.