Dear Colleagues,

As we move toward the twenty-first century, the Microbeam Analysis Society is going through a few changes, mostly for economic reasons. MAS is not a large society, yet it is healthy due to the strong support of members who believe that microanalysis needs its own venue for communication, education, and growth. I want to thank all those people who contributed to MAS, who through the years, from its beginnings more than thirty years ago to the present, have donated their time and energy to bringing the society to its mature position today. Thanks to these members, MAS exhibits the ultimate in scientific professionalism and fiscal integrity which makes me very proud to be a participant.

We have used the technique of in situ electron microscopy to study the oxidation and reduction of the palladium (Pd) catalysts. In this study, we have subjected a Pd catalyst to oxidation and reduction cycles and studied the changes in particle structure and morphology with in situ electron diffraction and imaging. The PdO particles can be reduced to Pd metal in situ at temperatures as low as 200°C in an atmosphere of a few Torr of both H2 and O2. We also found that essentially the same reduction occurred in the vacuums of 10−6 to 10−7 Torr in two different electron microscopes. Our in situ reduction studies show that many of the oxide particles form voids when reduced to Pd metal. The decrease in volume that occurs during reduction is often accommodated by a combination of particle shrinkage and void formation. The production of voids does not seem to depend on either the reducing atmosphere or the rate of reduction, although the voids appear to be unstable above 500°C.

This list contains brief descriptions of each of the positions known to be open in Microscopy Society of America (MSA) Placement Office files as of January 1, 1998. Potential employers are urged to use the Placement Office as widely as possible to advertise their needs to MSA members. Likewise, MSA members who are seeking employment in microscopy are urged to register with the Office to receive data on open positions periodically.

This list contains brief descriptions of each of the positions known to be open in Microscopy Society of America (MSA) Placement Office files. Potential employers are urged to use the Placement Office as widely as possible to advertise their needs to MSA members. Likewise, MSA members who are seeking employment in microscopy are urged to register with the Office to receive data on open positions periodically.

X-ray optics have been used in X-ray analytical instruments for several years. Applications of X-ray optics have been reported in X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and wavelength dispersive spectroscopy. X-ray optics have been used to increase the X-ray flux incident on the sample or to direct and focus emitted X-rays from a sample. We report here the use of a grazing incidence optic (GIO) as a flux-enhancing collimator for use with an energy-dispersive (ED) detector used to perform electron beam microanalysis. We found that the GIO in combination with an ED spectrometer (EDS) provides substantial intensity gain for X-ray lines with energy below 1 keV. The GIO is also found to provide a modest focus effect, and introduces minimal spectral artifacts.

Following is a list of microscopy-related meetings and courses. The editors would greatly appreciate input to this list via the electronic submission form found in the MSA World-Wide Web page at http:// www.msa.microscopy.com/. We will gladly add hypertext links to the notice on the Web and insert a listing of the meeting in the next issue of the Journal. Send comments and questions to Barbara Reine, reine@u.washington.edu or Nestor Zaluzec, zaluzec@aaem.amc.anl.gov.

The evolution of liquid lead (Pb) inclusions at grain boundaries in aluminum (Al) was investigated by direct in situ TEM observation in the temperature range from 330°–643°C, In agreement with earlier reports on quenched alloys, the characteristic contact angle of the lens-shaped grain boundary inclusions was found to be near 120°. This angle remained approximately constant over the entire temperature range, ruling out the possibility of a wetting transition. Coarsening of grain boundary inclusions was observed to proceed mainly by Ostwald ripening, although coalescence could also be observed. Inclusions at grain boundaries, at triple junctions, and at the intersection of grain boundaries with the foil surfaces adopted characteristic shapes that were shown to be equilibrium forms. At the highest temperatures, the grain boundaries were observed to detach from the inclusions and the interaction of a migrating grain boundary with inclusions could be observed.

This issue brings my first full year as editor of the News and Commentary to a close—a year of evolution from “making up it as we go along” to a position where there are regular features that provide consistency and a theme to the News and Commentary. The Calendar of Meetings and Courses continues. Most notable has been the introduction of a feature entitled “The Life and Achievements of …” in which such scientists as Albert Prebus, John Reisner, and Raymond Castaing have been profiled by individuals who knew them and who have generously agreed to write about them. This feature will be continued and any suggestions for individuals to be profiled are welcome.

E-mail messages regarding Microscopy and Microanalysis.

The Mexican Microscopy Society (MMS) wishes you all the best for 1998. One more year is over and the MMS has achieved its 1997 goals. Last year the MMS was very active collaborating in the organization of national and international conferences. Our presence was felt in several universities and colleges around our country through the organizing of courses and seminars which strongly supported the wide spread of knowledge and use of both electron and optical microscopies. Last but not least, we have also established strong ties with similar societies in all America.

In recent years, a number of different groups(1) have investigated and reported on implementing Web-based controls for SEMs and TEMs. Through telemicroscopy, as the field is often known, they have demonstrated that expensive microscopy resources can be shared and the experience of remote experts utilized in an efficient, cost-effective manner. Up to this point most technological demonstrations of telemicroscopy have been implemented as retrofits to existing microscopes. As retrofits, these demonstrations had limitations which a system designed from day one as a networked instruments could avoid. present here details of an ongoing project at R.J. Lee Instruments to redesign the software interface to our Personal SEM product around a TCP/IP link between the SEM hardware and the user interface. All communications between the SEM and console, including commands and image data are transmitted over a single 10-BaseT Ethernet link using the connection-oriented TCP protocol.

Strained layer heterostructures provide ideal systems with which to study the dynamics of dislocation motion via in situ transmission electron microscopy, as the geometry, strain state, and kinetics can be characterized and directly controlled. We discuss how these structures are used to study dislocation-point defect interactions, emphasizing the experimental requirements necessary for quantification of dislocation motion. Following ion implantation, different concentrations and types of point defects are introduced within the SiGe epilayer depending on the implantation species, energy, and current density. By annealing samples in situ in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) following implantation, we can directly observe dislocation motion and quantify the effect of dislocation-point defect interactions on dislocation velocities. We find that dislocation motion is impeded if the implantation dose peak lies within the epilayer, as dislocations pin at point defect atmospheres. Shallow BF2 implantation into the sample capping layer results in more complicated behavior. For low current density implants, dislocation velocities may be dramatically increased; at higher current densities the magnitude of this increase is significantly smaller. Implantation of different ions separately implicates fluorine as the species responsible for the observed increases in dislocation velocities, presumably due to an electrical effect on the rate of dislocation kink nucleation.

The International Federation of Societies for Electron Microscopy (IFSEM) was established in the mid-1950s out of a postwar desire to foster communications and collaboration among electron microscopists around the world and, to some extent, in response to growing recognition of the need for formal endorsement of an expanding calendar of meetings featuring foreign speakers and soliciting attendance from the rapidly swelling international community of electron microscopists. The present oversight function, pertaining to the scientific program, adequacy of the budgets, capacity of the facilities, and special amenities of the setting, came later. It must be said that the international ”Olympic Committee” system has worked well with an admirable string of successful meetings and no major problems. This short account deals primarily with the early IFSEM period. Developments during the middle and more recent IFSEM years have been described in a joint publication by Arvid Maunsbach and Gareth Thomas (1996)—both past Presidents of IFSEM. A subsequent account of the present structure, membership, and functions of IFSEM will also appear in a later issue of the Journal.

Following is a list of microscopy-related meetings and courses. The editors would greatly appreciate input to this list via the electronic submission form found in the MSA World-Wide Web page at http://www.msa.microscopy.com/. We will gladly add hypertext links to the notice on the Web and insert a listing of the meeting in the next issue of the Journal. Send comments and questions to Barbara Reine, reine@u.washington.edu or Nestor Zaluzec, zaluzec@aaem.amc.anl.gov.

The West Greene School District (WGSD) in southwestern Pennsylvania has been extremely aggressive in providing exceptional educational opportunities to its students which come primarily from a rural, small-town and post-industrial mining community. The five school systems serving Greene County have been linked with multiple T-l lines making special interest courses available to all students through a sophisticated distancelearning facility. The goals of this program are multiple including motivating students to pursue advanced education, especially in mathematics, computer sciences, engineering, and the basic sciences; enriching the educational experience beyond that commonly available to students in rural communities; and improving the general attractiveness of the region for business growth.

RJ Lee Group (RJLG) is a small business located about 60 miles northeast of Greene County specializing in solving materials-related problems. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is often one of the methods used by RJLG.

This is the first time that the president of a Brazilian scientific society has addressed a message through Microscopy and Microanalysis. I would like to thank Barbara Reine, News and Commentary Editor, and Dale Johnson, Microscopy and Microanalysis Editor-in-Chief, for giving me the honor of this inaugural opportunity.

Joint meeting of the Microscopy Society of America (56th) and the Microbeam Analysis Society (32nd).

An exciting and diverse set of meeting activities has been arranged for the upcoming gathering of microscopists and micro-analysts in Atlanta, Georgia in July. The meeting should prove to have something for everybody. The core of the Microscopy and Microanalysis '98 meeting consists of state-of-the-art symposia in the areas of Advances in Instrumentation and Techniques and in Applications of Microscopy and Microanalysis in the areas of biological sciences and physical sciences. Invited speakers include world-renown researchers from 14 different countries. Of special interest are symposia celebrating 30 Years of Energy Dispersive Spectrometry in Microanalysis (specially sponsored by MAS), 30 Years of Atom Probe Field Ion Microscopy, and a pre-meeting workshop and meeting symposia on that topic have also been scheduled this year.