Commercial availability of high spatial resolution STEM instruments is lead
ing to widespread use of EELS and ADF imaging techniques. Future instrument
s will need to greatly improve levels of stability and accuracy to allow us
e of these techniques with atomic level precision. I review some experiment
al results which suggest an urgent need for a 0.1 nm diameter probe with a
usable EELS spectral resolution of about 100 meV. (C) 1999 Published by Els
evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.