Amelinckx S., Dyck D., Landuyt J., Tendeloo G. (Eds.). Handbook of Microscopy: Applications: Applications in Materials Science, Solid-state Physics and Chemistry. Applications

VCH Verlagsgesellschaft, Weinheim, Germany, 1997. – 905 p. – ISBN: 3527292934The importance of microscopic imaging has in recent years been recognized repeatedly by the awarding of Nobel prizes to the inventors of a number of such methods. As a consequence of the decreasing scale of many devices, high resolution characterization methods have become of vital importance for further development in these areas. Recent advances in data processing have made it possible to develop imaging modes for a number of methods of chemical analysis, based on particle beams; they have been considered as forms of microscopy, particularly as they are often accessories to microscopic equipment. The systematic development of new materials strongly relies on their characterization at various and increasing levels of resolution. Structure, microstructure, and defect geometry, as well as chemical composition and spatial distribution are important parameters determining the behavior of materials in practical applications. At present the materials scientist has a large number of methods at his or her disposal to determine these parameters. In applying these methods, use is made of some kind of probe and the response of the sample to this probe is detected and recorded. In many cases the probe consists of a beam of particles such as neutrons, ions, or electrons, or of electromagnetic radiation such as light, X-rays, microwaves, infrared radiation, or sound waves. However the probe may also be a very fine point or fiber in close proximity to the sample surface leading to some form of interaction (mechanical, optical, electrical, magnetic). The probe may be operated in either a stationary or a scanning mode. As a guiding principle in selecting the characterization methods to be addressed in the Handbook of Microscopy, we used the requirement that the method should give spatially localized information of the microstructure and/or the composition.
Moreover, in order to qualify as ‘microscopy’, the method should have the potential to provide a magnified real-space image of the sample. An introductory discussion of the physicochemical principles underlying the different methods and the type of information which they can provide is the subject of the first two Volumes of the Handbook, Methods I and Methods II. Different classes of materials and different applications of the same material may require different characterization methods; a single method is usually not applicable to all materials. It is therefore meaningful to illustrate the use of the different methods by a number of case studies classified according to the type of material or to its use. This is the objective of the third volume, Applications.
Volume 1: Methods I
Light Microscopy
Fundamentals of Light Microscopy
X-Ray Microscopy
Acoustic Microscopy
Electron Microscopy
Volume 2: Methods II
Electron Microscopy
Magnetic Methods
Emission Methods
Scanning Point Probe Techniques
General Introduction
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy
Image Recording, Handling and Processing
Special Topics
Volume 3: Applications
Classes of Materials
Metals and Alloys
Microscopy of Rocks and Minerals
Semiconductors and Semiconducting Devices
Optoelectronic Materials
Domain Structures in Ferroic Materials
Microscopy of Structural Ceramics
Microscopy of Gemmological Materials
Superconducting Ceramics
Non-Periodic Structures
Medical and Dental Materials
Carbon
Composite Structural Materials
The Structure of Polymers and their Monomeric Analogs
Nuclear Materials
Magnetic Microscopy
Special Topics
Small Particles
Structural Phase Transformations
Preparation Techniques for Transmission Electron Microscopy
Environmental Problems
Quantitative Hyleography: The Determination of Quantitative Data from Micrographs