Most information about a specimen is obtained by elastic scattering of electrons, but one cannot avoid inelastic scattering and therefore radiation damage by ionisation as a primary process of damage. This damage is a dose effect, being proportional to the product of lectron current density j and the irradiation time t in Coul.cm−2 as long as there is a negligible heating of the specimen.Therefore one has to determine the dose needed to produce secondary damage processes, which can be measured quantitatively by a chemical or physical effect in the thin specimen. The survival of micro-organisms or the decrease of photoconductivity and cathodoluminescence are such effects needing very small doses (see table).
