  Adhesion is a key issue for researchers of various fields, it is therefore of
uppermost importance to understand the parameters that are involved. Commonly,
only surface parameters are employed to determine the adhesive forces between
materials. Yet, van der Waals forces act not only between atoms in the vicinity
of the surface, but also between atoms in the bulk material. In this review, we
describe the principles of van der Waals interactions and outline experimental
and theoretical studies investigating the influence of the subsurface material
on adhesion. In addition, we present a collection of data indicating that
silicon wafers with native oxide layers are a good model substrate to study van
der Waals interactions with coated materials.
