In this article we review correlation effects in solids derived from electr
on energy-loss spectroscopic studies of valence band excitations carried ou
t in transmission. In particular, we focus on 'simple' alkali metals, quasi
one-dimensional metals [(TaSe4)(2)I], low-dimensional undoped model cuprat
es (Li2CuO2, Sr2CuO3, SrCuO2 and Sr2CuO2Cl2), high-T-C superconductors (Bi2
Sr2CaCu2O8) and the vanadate ladder compounds (V2O5 and NaV2O8). (C) 2001 E
lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.