This book contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Surfaces and Interfaces of Ceramic Materials, held on the Oleron island, France, in September 1988. This Institute was organized in nine months after receiving the agreement of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division. Despite this very short time, most of the lecturers contacted have accepted our invitation to prepare a specific talk. The meeting was held at "La Vieille Perrotine" on the Oleron island. This holiday village of the French CNRS is located near the Ocean in a natural area which contributed to create a very pleasant atmosphere favourable to develop interaction between the 91 participants in this Institute. First of all, the Institute was aimed at diffusing the foremost results on the characterization of and the role played by surfaces, grain boundaries and interfaces in preparation and overall properties of ceramic materials, mainly of oxide ceramics. Through its interdisciplinary character, the Institute was also aimed at developing interaction between scientists and engineers interested in basic and practical aspects of processing and use of ceramics.

Sintering of Ceramics provides the only comprehensive treatment of the theories and principles of sintering and their application to the production of advanced ceramics with the required target microstructure. Stemming from the author's bestselling text, Ceramic Processing and Sintering, this book includes additional material selected

This book contains the proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Surfaces and Interfaces of Ceramic Materials, held on the Oleron island, France, in September 1988. This Institute was organized in nine months after receiving the agreement of the NATO Scientific Affairs Division. Despite this very short time, most of the lecturers contacted have accepted our invitation to prepare a specific talk. The meeting was held at "La Vieille Perrotine" on the Oleron island. This holiday village of the French CNRS is located near the Ocean in a natural area which contributed to create a very pleasant atmosphere favourable to develop interaction between the 91 participants in this Institute. First of all, the Institute was aimed at diffusing the foremost results on the characterization of and the role played by surfaces, grain boundaries and interfaces in preparation and overall properties of ceramic materials, mainly of oxide ceramics. Through its interdisciplinary character, the Institute was also aimed at developing interaction between scientists and engineers interested in basic and practical aspects of processing and use of ceramics.

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.

High-temperature ceramic fibers are the key components of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs). Ceramic fiber properties (strength, temperature and creep resistance, for example)-along with the debonding characteristics of their coatings-determine the properties of CMCs. This report outlines the state of the art in high-temperature ceramic fibers and coatings, assesses fibers and coatings in terms of future needs, and recommends promising avenues of research. CMCs are also discussed in this report to provide a context for discussing high-temperature ceramic fibers and coatings.