Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary research area that includes a large number of classical discplines, such as physics, chemistry, biology and material science. The subject in nanotechnology and nanoscience research range the chemistry of nanoparticles catalysis to the physics of quantum dot laser.

Researchers in any of these fields have to go beyond their own discpline to benefit from the potential of nanotechnology in its interdiscplinarity and to contribute to this new research area. Hence the personnel involved in the assessment process – technical managers, evaluators, persons making funding decisions – need an understanding of a number of subjects.

Therefore this thesis is essentially meant to present an overview as well as  the standards and regulations applied to this field and thus a guideline as a result of the broad nature of the field it expanded into an introduction to the various important areas of nanotechnology. A detailed technical presentation of nanotechnolgy would go beyond these objectives.

The topics summarized in this thesis were chosen with the aim to provide an introductory study of nanotechnology that would enable scientists from other fields of study to both gain insight into nanotechnology breakthroughs outside their specialty and use them, and would provide technical managers with a general concepts of the fields. Parts of this work could also be used as an introductory text for graduate courses in nanotechnology and microtechnology.