Characterization of Radiation Damage by Transmission Electron Microscopy details the electron microscopy methods used to investigate complex and fine-scale microstructures, such as those produced by fast-particle irradiation of metals or ion implantation of semiconductors. The book focuses on the methods used to characterize small point-defect clusters, such as dislocation loops, because the coverage in general microscopy textbooks is limited and omits many of the problems associated with the analysis of these defects. The book also describes in situ, high-resolution, and analytical techniques. Techniques are illustrated with examples, providing a solid overview of the contribution of TEM to radiation damage mechanisms. The book is most useful to researchers in, or entering into, the field of defect analysis in materials.

Our motivation for writing this book was two-fold. First, no existing book provides a complete and detailed description of the TEM techniques which have been developed for characterization of small point-defect clusters and other finescale radiation damage microstructures. Several good books cover the general theory and practice of transmission electron microscopy (e.g. Hirsch et al 1967, Williams and Carter 1996), but none describes fully the range of techniques considered here. These books do of course cover many topics, especially diffraction theory, in more detail than is possible in this book. Second, we fear that important lessons from the past, especially about some of the inherent difficulties and limitations of some of the techniques, are in danger of being forgotten.

We hope for these reasons that this book will be of practical use to microscopists working in the field of radiation damage. Several of the techniques described should also be useful more generally, in applications where it is necessary to characterize fine-scale, complex microstructures. We will show, for example, some studies of ion-implantation damage in semiconductors and flux pinning defects in superconductors.