Until comparatively recently, trace analysis techniques were in general directed toward the determination of impurities in bulk materials. Methods were developed for very high relative sensitivity, and the values determined were average values. Sampling procedures were devised which eliminated the so-called sampling error. However, in the last decade or so, a number of developments have shown that, for many purposes, the distribution of defects within a material can confer important new properties on the material. Perhaps the most striking example of this is given by semiconductors; a whole new industry has emerged in barely twenty years based entirely on the controlled distribu tion of defects within what a few years before would have been regarded as a pure, homogeneous crystal. Other examples exist in biochemistry, metallurgy, polyiners and, of course, catalysis. In addition to this of the importance of distribution, there has also been a recognition growing awareness that physical defects are as important as chemical defects. (We are, of course, using the word defect to imply some dis continuity in the material, and not in any derogatory sense. ) This broadening of the field of interest led the Materials Advisory Board( I} to recommend a new definition for the discipline, "Materials Character ization," to encompass this wider concept of the determination of the structure and composition of materials. In characterizing a material, perhaps the most important special area of interest is the surface. Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-5 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Light Microscopy....Pages 9-32 Multiple-Beam Interferometry....Pages 33-48 Stylus Techniques....Pages 49-74 Electron Microscopy....Pages 75-106 Scanning Electron Microscopy....Pages 107-131 Field Ion Microscopy....Pages 133-146 X-Ray Diffraction Methods....Pages 147-178 Front Matter....Pages 179-179 Electrochemical Techniques....Pages 181-201 Emission Spectrometry....Pages 203-214 Internal Reflection Spectroscopy....Pages 215-245 Radioisotope Techniques....Pages 247-273 X-Ray Fluorescence Analysis....Pages 275-306 Surface Characterization by Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA)....Pages 307-336 Resonance Methods....Pages 337-377 Mössbauer Spectroscopy....Pages 379-401 Rutherford Scattering....Pages 403-418 Accelerator Microbeam Techniques....Pages 419-439 Electron Probe Microanalysis....Pages 441-484 X-Ray Emission Fine Features....Pages 485-507 Front Matter....Pages 179-179 Analytical Auger Electron Spectroscopy....Pages 509-575 Mass Spectrometry....Pages 577-626 Impurity-Movement Problems in Analysis Methods Using Particle Bombardment....Pages 627-640 Surface Composition by Analysis of Neutral and Ion Impact Radiation....Pages 641-662 Back Matter....Pages 663-670
