Applied Physics has been founded in 1973 by H.K.V. Lotsch and is an international journal for the rapid publication of experimental and theoretical investigations in applied research. It is issued in two parts: Applied Physics A - Materials Science and Processing and Applied Physics B - Lasers and Optics . Both parts appear monthly in issues of varying size. Six issues constitute one volume and two volumes are normally published per year. Applied Physics A publishes regular articles rapid communications and invited papers about new results focussing on the condensed phase but including nanostructured materials and their applications. In addition to those about surfaces and thin films papers on advanced processing and characterization techniques are of interest for the readers of this journal. The high print quality ensures excellent reproduction of photographs obtained in fields such as scanning probe microscopy. Instructions how to prepare and submit manuscripts are to be found on an extra page of the journal. Once a manuscript has been accepted it is published quickly and free of page charges if page restrictions are observed (see