Electron Beam Analysis of Materials

The examination of materials using electron beam techniques has developed continuously for over twenty years and there are now many different methods of extracting detailed structural and chemical information using electron beams. These techniques which include electron probe microanalysis, trans- mission electron microscopy, Auger spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy have, until recently, developed more or less independently of each other. Thus dedicated instruments designed to optimize the performance for a specific application have been available and correspondingly most of the available textbooks tend to have covered the theory and practice of an individual technique. There appears to be no doubt that dedicated instru- ments taken together with the specialized textbooks will continue to be the appropriate approach for some problems. Nevertheless the underlying electron-specimen interactions are common to many techniques and in view of the fact that a range of hybrid instruments is now available it seems appropriate to provide a broad-based text for users of these electron beam facilities. The aim of the present book is therefore to provide, in a reasonably concise form, the material which will allow the practitioner of one or more of the individual techniques to appreciate and to make use of the type of information which can be obtained using other electron beam techniques.