Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy in the Electron Microscope

The papers collected here are intended to make the community of electron spectroscopists acquainted with the latest developments of Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) techniques. While several excellent handbooks in the literature provide a virtually exhaustive account of our knowledge of this topic as established through studies carried out until recent years, the major aim of this special issue is to offer the reader with a thorough overview of a truly in fieri research conducted world-wide in the field. The papers were contributed by academic and industrial laboratories located in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan, and their selection has obeyed the criterion of presenting an overall picture of EELS, with a virtually equal emphasis being placed on "theory", "instrument" and "experiment". I should like to thank all the contributing authors for their effort and patience, and the referees for their carefully reviewing the papers in a (generally) reasonable time. Most of all, I wish to express my deep gratitude to Professor J.J. Pireaux for proposing my guest-editorship, for generously overseeing my work, and for guiding me safely throughout all the stages of the editing of the special issue. I should also like to thank Prof. A. Hitchcock for his advice and encouragement, as well as Dr. E. van Wezenbeek, Ms. Mary Liddy and Ms. Maria Carton of Elsevier Science for appointing me guest editor and for their fruitful co-operation, respectively. I would finally dedicate my work to the memory of the late Prof. Tery Barr.