VIII Preface
help to the reader in this respect is provided by an extended common list of
contents, in addition to the contents overview, as well as an extensive subject
index.
The book is a greatly enlarged (more than twice) and completely revised
edition of a volume first published with Vieweg in 1998. Although the first
edition was very well received (and considered as a “must for students and
workers in the field”), it was felt that, in addition to the broad coverage
of modern methods, materials should also be discussed in greater detail in
the new edition. The same applies to theoretical concepts and models. This,
in fact, is represented by the new subtitle Methods, Materials, Models of
Diffusion in Condensed Matter.
The experimental Methods include radiotracer and mass spectrometry,
M¨oßbauer spectroscopy and nuclear resonant scattering of synchrotron ra-
diation, quasielastic neutron scattering and neutron spin-echo spectroscopy,
dynamic light scattering and fluorescence techniques, diffraction and scan-
ning tunneling microscopy in surface diffusion, spin relaxation spectroscopy
by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and beta-radiation detected NMR,
NMR in a magnetic field gradient, NMR in the presence of an electric field,
impedance spectroscopy and other techniques for measuring frequency de-
pendent conductivities.
Materials now dealt with are, among others, metals and alloys, metallic
glasses, semiconductors, oxides, proton-, lithium- and other ion-conductors,
nanocrystalline materials, micro- and mesoporous systems, inorganic glasses,
polymers and colloidal systems, biological membranes, fluids and liquid mix-
tures. The span from simple monoatomic crystals, with defects in thermal
equilibrium enabling elementary jumps, to highly complex systems, exem-
plarily represented by a biomembrane (cf. Fig. 12.3), is also indicated on the
book cover.
Models in the subtitle stands for theoretical descriptions by, e. g., correlation
functions, lattice models treated by (approximate) analytical methods, the
theory of fractals, percolation models, Monte Carlo simulations, molecular dy-
namics simulations, phenomenological approaches like the counterion model,
the dynamic structure model and the concept of mismatch and relaxation.
Despite the large variety of topics and themes the coverage of diffusion in
condensed matter is of course not complete and far from being encyclopedic.
Inevitably, it reflects to a certain extent also the editors’ main fields of inter-
est. Nevertheless the chapters are believed to present a balanced selection.
The book tries to bridge the transition from the advanced undergradu-
ate to the postgraduate and active research stage. Accordingly, the various
chapters are in parts tutorial, but they also lead to the forefront of current
research without intending to mimic the topicality of proceedings, which nor-
mally have a short expiry date. It is therefore designed as a textbook or refer-