This Concise Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference work covering all aspects of materials characterization. Information is presented in a series of alphabetically arranged articles which deal concisely with individual topics in a self-contained manner. This guide outlines the main features and organization of the Encyclopedia, and is intended to help the reader to locate the maximum amount of information on a given topic.

Accessibility of material is of vital importance in a reference work of this kind and article titles have therefore been selected not only on the basis of article content but also with the most probable needs of the reader in mind. An alphabetical list of all the articles contained in this Encyclopedia is to be found on pp. xvii xix.

Articles are linked by an extensive cross-referencing system. Cross-references to other articles in the Encyclopedia are of two types: in text and end of text. Those in the body of the text are designed to refer the reader to articles that present in greater detail material on the specific topic under discussion at that point. They generally take one of the following forms:

which is fully described in the article Magnetic Recording Devices: Future Technologies.

other applications of this technique (see SQUIDs: Magnetic Microscopy).

The cross-references listed at the end of an article serve to identify broad background reading and to direct the reader to articles that cover different aspects of the same topic.

The nature of an encyclopedia demands a higher degree of...