Introduction

Abstract

Electron microscopy continues to push the limits of resolution. At high resolution, image artifacts due to instrumental or specimen limitations can greatly complicate image interpretation. The computer is finding an every increasing role in interpreting high resolution transmission electron micrographs as well as extracting additional information from the recorded images. Computer technology has been progressing at a very rapid pace over the past several decades. The rate of improvement in computing is certainly much faster than the rate of improvement of the electron microscope. A very powerful computer is now much less than one percent of the cost of a respectable electron microscope even though this level of computer hardware used to cost much more than a high performance electron microscope. It is very worthwhile to try to exploit the computer in electron microscopy in any way possible to extract more information about the specimen or to reduce the cost or effort required to obtain this information. Various applications of computing to electron microscopy may be arranged in the following categories.