The effect of electromagnetic radiation on the material and recording of the intensity of radiation in reference to its wavelength (spectrum), is the beginning of a wide range of technological processes that briefly one might call it radiation technologies. The radiation technologies due to their important advantages (extremely short measuring time, minimal quantities of samples, high precision and sensitivity) which present when compared with the physicochemical routine methods can be applied to solving man technical problems referred to the structure of material and its substances as well as its kinetics and reaction mechanisms. The mapping of radiation technologies is complex and multidimensional.
Generally one can distinguish three categories:
1) Diffraction and scattering,
2) Surface radiation, and
3) Spectroscopy.
The first category refers to geometric classification of the atoms and the distribution of electrons that make up the structure of the material. Examples are diffraction and scattering of the X-rays (XRD, SAXS) neutrons, electrons and light.
The second category refers to the structure and composition of solid surfaces. Related techniques are photoemission spectroscopy and Auger (AES), the diffraction of low energy electrons (LEED), and B electron microscopy (STM, AFM, TEM, SEM).
The third category refers to the energy levels of molecules and electrons and the magnetic resonance. The ultraviolet visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), the infrared spectrometry (IR) and Raman, the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and the Laser are some examples.