Customer Reviews

Electron Microscopy of Thin Crystals

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Where Marc De Graef's wonderful book Introduction to Conventional Transmission Electron Microscopy (Cambridge Solid State Science Series) is a rigorous and self-contained physics course, Hirsch et al. is more like a distinguished historical treatise penned by Winston Churchill. And you know what they say: "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it". Much of modern transmission electron microscopy has its roots in the topics covered in this book. I was surprised a few years back when I discovered that the central equation used in LACBED dislocation analysis came from the authors' treatment of kinematical diffraction theory! Other things, like Ashby-Brown contrast of coherent precipitates, I later learned can be used to understand TEM contrast of semiconductor quantum wells and superlattices. So save yourself some trouble and avoid reinventing the wheel by giving this book a good read!

This book is old -- written in 1967, revised in 1977. Time has marched on.

That said, this is still a valuable reference. It covers, in great depth, the theory of TEM, with chapters devoted to most subjects.

The chapter and appendix on sample preparation are invaluable!

This book will be somewhat superceeded when Marc de Graef's text is published (probably in Summer 2002 -- I took de Graef's course at Carnegie Mellon Univ., it was great!), but this book will still be an important reference, and an important historical signpost, in the field of TEM.