PREFACE-TO-THE-FIRST-EDITION_1995_Diffraction-Physics

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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
This book has evolved, over the last ten years, from 
lecture notes for classes in physical optics, diffraction 
physics and electron microscopy given to advanced under- 
graduate and graduate students. It reflects my own particular 
interests in electron diffraction and diffraction from 
disordered or imperfect crystals and employs an approach 
which is particularly suited to the treatment of these 
topics. This approach, using the Fourier transform from the 
beginning instead of as an extension of a Fourier series 
treatment, is not only more satisfying from a conceptual and 
theoretical basis but it provides the possibility for a 
unified treatment of all the different branches of diffrac- 
tion physics, employing electrons, X-rays or neutrons. 
Because this approach has been adopted, the generation of 
the familiar ideas of diffraction of radiation by solids is 
slow and detailed. Bragg's Law does not appear until Chapter 
6 and then only as a corollary to the Ewald sphere construc- 
tion. This may create difficulties for readers or students 
unfamiliar with the more conventional approaches. Hence this 
book is probably more appropriate for those who have had one 
elementary course in diffraction or who are already engaged 
in some area of diffraction work. 
Much of the content relating to electron diffraction has 
been generated in collaboration with A.F. Moodie, of the 
Division of Chemical Physics, C.S.I.R.O., Australia, who has 
for many years been my mentor in matters of diffraction 
theory. My heartfelt gratitude goes to him and to all my 
colleagues in the C.S.I.R.O., the University of Melbourne and 
Arizona State University whose valuable and friendly collab- 
oration has made this work possible and who have allowed me 
to use their results and their pictures to illustrate the 
text. I wish to thank Drs. Kato, Borrmann and Beauvillain for 
permission to reproduce Figs. 9.10, 14.4, 14.5 respectively.