One of the key technologies needed to understand and develop the mechanical and electrical properties of ceramics is the field of grain boundary engineering. This book covers new developments in this important field and addresses topics from grain boundary phenomena to grain boundary quantum structures, including the development of new techniques such as multifunctional electronmicroscopes, various kinds of spectroscopic analysis, and first principles calculations. Proceedings of the Japan Fine Ceramics Center Workshop, March 15-17, 2000, in Nagoya, Japan; Ceramic Transactions, Volume 118.

The Proceedings of the International Materials Symposium on Ceramic Microstructures '86: Role of Interfaces presents a comprehensive coverage of the past decade's advances in ceramic science and technology related to microstructures. The term microstructure is used in the broad sense and is synonymous with char~cter. Character is defined as a complete detailed description of chemical and physical characteristics of a material. This symposium is the third in a series, held every ten years, on ceramic microstructures. The first symposium, in 1966, had as a subtitle "Their Analysis, Significance and Production" and emphasized the need and importance of characterization in order to fully understand the chemical and physical properties of materials. The second Symposium, in 1976, placed emphasis on the exploration of characters most suited and needed for "Energy-Related Applications." By the time of that conference, the sequence of processing--characterization--properties was fully accepted. It was recognized that characterization was the basis of materials science; the objective of processing was to produce a desired character that was considered necessary to realize a given property or behavior. To further emphasize the importance of character, the symposium dealt primarily with the property/character coupling.

Defect Recognition and Image Processing in Semiconductors 1997 provides a valuable overview of current techniques used to assess, monitor, and characterize defects from the atomic scale to inhomogeneities in complete silicon wafers. This volume addresses advances in defect analyzing techniques and instrumentation and their application to substrates, epilayers, and devices. The book discusses the merits and limits of characterization techniques; standardization; correlations between defects and device performance, including degradation and failure analysis; and the adaptation and application of standard characterization techniques to new materials. It also examines the impressive advances made possible by the increase in the number of nanoscale scanning techniques now available. The book investigates defects in layers and devices, and examines the problems that have arisen in characterizing gallium nitride and silicon carbide.

This volume, titled Proceedings of the International Materials Symposium on Ce ramic Microstructures: Control at the Atomic Level summarizes the progress that has been achieved during the past decade in understanding and controlling microstructures in ceram ics. A particular emphasis of the symposium, and therefore of this volume, is advances in the characterization, understanding, and control of micro structures at the atomic or near-atomic level. This symposium is the fourth in a series of meetings, held every ten years, devoted to ceramic microstructures. The inaugural meeting took place in 1966, and focussed on the analysis, significance, and production of microstructure; the symposium emphasized the need for, and importance of characterization in achieving a more complete understanding of the physical and chemical characteristics of ceramics. A consensus emerged at that meeting on the critical importance of characterization in achieving a more complete understanding of ceramic properties. That point of view became widely accepted in the ensuing decade. The second meeting took place in 1976 at a time of world-wide energy shortages and thus emphasized energy-related applications of ceramics, and more specifically, microstructure-property relationships of those materials. The third meeting, held in 1986, was devoted to the role that interfaces played both during processing, and in influencing the ultimate properties of single and polyphase ceramics, and ceramic-metal systems.