The first comprehensive overview of the potential and virtues of modern diffraction methods, this book covers various applications in which these versatile and very important techniques play a major role. These range from nanoscience to materials science, surface technologies to single crystal structure determination, and the analysis of phases and phase transformations to the microstructure of materials.
Of major interest to biochemists, material scientists, material engineers and also those working in industry.

Professor Mittemeijer has led the department 'Phase Transformations in Solids' at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research since 1998. He has published more than 400 papers in international scientific journals and is a member of the editorial board of various journals, among them 'International Materials Reviews', 'Journal of Alloys and Compounds', 'Zeitschrift fur Metallkunde' and 'Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie'. He is editor/publisher of the journal 'HTM Zeitschrift fur Werkstoffe Warmebehandlung Fertigung' and co-editor of the journal 'Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science'. He acts as referee of numerous journals.
Dr Welzel obtained his PhD in 2002 under the supervision of Professor Mittemeijer and serves now as a research scientist and the head of a service laboratory for X-ray diffraction investigations at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research. His research activities are dedicated to the diffraction analysis of the microstructure of materials and have a strong methodological interest. He has been an editor of the Proceedings of the European Powder Diffraction Conference since 2002, a special issue of the journal 'Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie' dedicated to 'The State of the Art of Powder Diffration' and acts as referee of numerous journals.