Surface charging in XPS can seriously smear chemical information. On the other hand, it frequently provides valuable structural and electrical information. Can the controlled surface charging (CSC)@footnote 1@ become a quantitative tool? What are the limits of this probe in terms of spatial resolution, reliability and applicability? These questions and others are discussed in view of supporting experimental results. Enhanced capabilities for structural analysis, down to nm resolution, are demonstrated. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ Nature 406, 382 (2000); JACS 122, 4959 (2000).