Three aspects of radiation damage are of concern to electron microscopists: changes in crystallographic or molecular structure, mass loss and change in chemical composition. Structural change can be monitored from the fading of diffraction patterns or from loss of fine structure in an energy-loss spectrum. Total mass loss, in the form of a reduction in inelastic-scattering power, can be observed from the low-loss spectrum. Mass loss can also be monitored from energy-loss ionization edges, with the advantage that the loss of particular elements can be studied separately. It is possible to assign a characteristic dose De for the disappearance of a particular element.

At room temperature, the amount of damage usually depends on the accumulated dose (exposure) but not on the dose rate (current density). However, cooling the specimen tends to reduce mass loss, probably because of the reduced diffusion coefficients.