About 70 years have passed since Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll constructed the first transmission electron microscope in Germany. During that time, the instrument has steadily developed from a microscope that barely matched the resolution of an optical microscope to a sophisticated and indispensable toolfor materials research. Our theoretical understanding of the interaction of high-energy electrons with a solid thin foil and the subsequent propagation of those scattered electrons through a complex electron–optical system has also advanced significantly, to the point that, in principle at least, it is now possible to predict and simulate every possible image and imaging mode. The advent of affordable high-speed computing power has much to do with the transition from a qualitative characterization tool to a highly sensitive and quantitative research instrument.

This book has grown out of the lecture notes for the course “Introduction to Electron Optical Methods”, taught every year or so in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (course 27–763, second year graduate level). While partial notes have existed since the Spring of 1993, work on the book itself started in the Summer of 1996. The subsequent publication of several new textbooks in the area of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has served to focus the topics treated in this text, and a significant effort was made to provide an approach that would be different from but complementary to the other new texts.

On a regular basis, the journal Ultramicroscopy publishes an article by Peter W. Hawkes, who reviews various publications in the field of TEM-based research and closely related fields.