General Electric – Research (GE-R) has been the center of innovation for the GE businesses and strategic partners for more than a century. Our mission is to see, move, and create a brighter future through innovation. In 2018,GE-Research made a strategic decision to expand our collaboration with external partners to develop advanced and differentiating technologies in the areas of materials development, characterization, and analytics. I will highlight novel capabilities for film/coating deposition and how advanced characterization provided solutions and solved a problem that enabled important industrial-technological breakthroughs and ultimately the development of new/improved products. The presentation will focus on the characterization of both surface and sub-surface layers.