Issues

Techniques such as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, Auger spectroscopy, ESCA and others help us to relate the composition and structure of a material to its performance in a desired application.

Contemporary crystallographic techniques for examining the structures of solids and their excitations and defects use generators ranging from new miniature x‐ray tubes to synchrotrons and pulsed‐neutron sources.

The laser, a clean source of thermal energy with high power density, can melt metallic and ceramic alloys to produce novel and useful microstructures; it also adapts well to automated processing techniques.

Ion‐beam analysis, with its prime asset that the energetic projectile ions interact only with target nuclei, has provided quantitative information in many diverse investigations.