Abstract: A standard for calibrating and checking a nanotopography unit, includes a substrate and at least one structure which is deposited on the substrate. It has a lateral extent of 0.5 to 20 mm and a vertical extent of 5 to 500 nm and is bounded by edges which have a gradient of at most 1*10−3. There is also a method for producing the standard, with material being deposited on the substrate at an inhomogeneous deposition rate.

Abstract: A device for examining the smoothness of a sample surface includes a scattered-light instrument for scanning the surface with a focused laser beam and for detecting scattered light which is reflected during the scanning of the surface. There is also an instrument for microscopic examination of prominently light-scattering regions of the surface after they have been identified using the scattered-light instrument. This device has an evacuable sample chamber, in which the sample is placed on a sample holder and which has a transparent window through which the laser beam passes before it strikes the surface of the sample. There is also a method for examining a sample using the device.