Book excerpt: The development of advanced materials with preselected properties is one of the main goals of materials research. Of especial interest are electronics, high-temperature and supemard materials for various applications, as well as alloys with improved wear, corrosion and mechanical resistance properties. The technical challenge connected with the production of these materials is not only associated with the development of new specialised preparation techniques but also with quality control. The energetic charged particle, electron and photon beams offer the possibility of modifying the properties of the near-surface regions of materials without seriously affecting their bulk, and provide unique analytical tools for testing their qUality. This volume includes most of the lectures and contributions delivered at the NATO-funded Advanced Study Institute "Application of Particle and Laser Beams in Materials Technology", which was held in Kallithea, Chalkidiki, in Northern Greece, from the 8th to the 21st of May, 1994 and attended by 73 participants from 21 countries. The aim of this ASI was to provide to the participants an overview of this rapidly expanding field. Fundamental aspects concerning the interactions and collisions on atomic, nuclear and solid state scale were presented in a didactic way, along with the application of a variety of techniques for the solution of problems ranging from the development of electronics materials to corrosion research and from archaeometry to environmental protection.