Ceramics have long been known for their refractoriness, or ability to bear loads at elevated temperatures. However, until the 1960s, the predominant refractory ceramics were oxide-based materials such as silica, zirconia, alumina, mullite, magnesia, and their combinations, including silicates. These ceramics were, and still are, used for firebrick furnace linings, crucibles and liquid metal carrier liners, regenerators, and recuperators.

However, these materials all possess some characteristic which precludes their use for very high stress, high temperature applications. Typically, the silicates form viscous liquids which allow creep, while zirconia and alumina suffer from poor thermal shock resistance, and magnesia possesses a large thermal expansion coefficient. Consequently, for heat engine applications which involve high temperatures, high stresses, sudden temperature changes (e.g., startup), and may involve the maintenance of tight operating tolerances, a new family of materials is required. The requisite properties for heat engine applications may be found in certain non-oxide materials, namely silicon nitride and silicon carbide. They possess high strength even at high temperatures, low thermal expansion coefficient, and excellent thermal shock resistance. These materials are not thermodynamically stable in air at elevated temperatures and will eventually react to form oxides. Nonetheless, they possess excellent oxidation resistance by virtue of protective silica-based glass oxidation layers.

Scanning Auger microscopy is a developing field which has by no means reached its limits either in instrumentation or methodology. Two areas of progress in the microanalysis of materials are the quantification of micro-area spectra and the collection and analysis of Auger images. For microanalysis, some strategies for the quantification of spectra depend on determining the shape of the secondary electron background. Developments in the method of linearized secondary-electron cascades give promise to achieving this. Analyses of materials by multispectral Auger imaging show that it is possible to give a meaningful and quantifiable representation of the inhomogeneities across a surface in the form of color-coded statistically significant images.

The magic of multilayer structures — comprised of a regular repeating pattern of alternating layers that vary in thickness from less than 1 nm to more than several micrometers — is present today in nearly every facet of materials science.

A technological gamut of issues has been approached through the use of multilayer structures. Material systems have been routinely investigated, ranging from simple binary through complex quaternary and including nearly every element of the periodic table. Applications include thin-film semiconductor devices in the form of strained-layer superlattices; protective coatings for improved surface hardness and wear resistance of conventional alloys (tribology); and reflective and transmissive x-ray optical devices. Multilayer structures have also provided an experimental means to investigate the interdiffusion and stability of alloy phases; the relationship between the presence, lack, or variations of crystallinity with magnetism (and most recently superconductivity); and the role of interfaces in adhesion and elastic/plastic behavior.