The Workshop on Desorption Induced by Electronic Transitions (DIET) took place May 12-14, 1982, in Williamsburg, Virginia. The meeting brought together, for the first time, most of the leading workers in the fields of electron and photon stimulated desorption from surfaces, as well as many workers in related fields, including sputtering, gas-phase photodissociation and solid-state theory. The emphasis of the workshop was on the microscopic mechanism of stimu­ lated desorption. Many possible mechanisms have been proposed, and a few new ones emerged at the meeting. Though no consensus was reached, many views were espoused and criticized, frequently with considerable enthusiasm. The result was an appraisal of our current understanding of DIET, and a focus on the experimental and theoretical efforts most likely to lead to new insights. This volume is an attempt to record the information exchanged in this very successful workshop and, perhaps, convey some of the excitement of the field of DIET. The book is a collection of papers written by participants in the DIET workshop, including in addition a contribution from Dietrich Menzel, who was unable to attend. Thus, this book represents a complete statement of the state of the art of experimental and theoretical studies of DIET and related phenomena. More importantly, it addresses the interesting unsolved problems, and suggests strategies for unraveling them. We acknowledge the assistance given by the other members of the organizing committee, A. E. de Vries, R. Gomer, M. L. Knotek, D. Menzel and D. P.