New novel techniques for surface characterization on an atomic level have been developed rapidly during past two decades. These techniques have been applied to corrosion research and provided great advances in corrosion science. In this article, their application results in corrosion science were reviewed focusing on scanning probe microscopic techniques such as Kelvin microprobe, scanning electrochemical microscopy, and scanning tunnel microscopy. Moreover, it was emphasized that quartz crystal microbalance gave the great contribution to study on minute corrosion of metal thin films.
