1. Bonds in solids (ionic, covalent, van der Waals, metallic), crystalline and amorphous materials, type of materials (ceramics, glasses, metals, polymers, composites) • 2. Physics at surfaces (surface tension, electronics of surfaces, work function, surface states, thermoemission, adsorption, chemisorption, methods for preparation of clean surfaces) • 3. Interaction of photons with materials and principles of spectroscopic characterization methods (Mössbauer effect, photoeffect, spectrophotometry and ellipsometry, Ramanova spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy, NMR, EPR) • 4. Interaction of particle beams (electrons, neutrons, ions/atoms) with condensed matter • 5. Electron spectroscopy (electron sources, energy analysers, ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Auger spectroscopy, spectroscopy of energy losses) • 6. Ion beam methods (ion sources, mass analyzers, Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy - RBS, elastic recoil detection analysis - ERDA, nuclear resonance reaction analysis - NRA, secondary ion mass spectrometry - SIMS, fast atom bombardment - FAB, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization - MALDI)