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Experimental Protocols in Atom Probe Tomography

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Atom Probe Microscopy

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Materials Science ((SSMATERIALS,volume 160))

Abstract

In this chapter, each step of an atom probe tomography experiment is described sequentially, from the alignment of the specimen to its probable fracture, which is the most usual termination of an experiment. The influence of the main experimental parameters—base temperature, detection rate, pulsing mode, etc.—is discussed with the aim of helping the atom probe user to understand the mechanisms underpinning how these parameters could change the data collected, and hence to select parameters to obtain the best possible data. A set of metrics is introduced that can be used to assess the quality of the data. Of these, several can be assessed as the analysis is being performed, including the measured composition within a dataset, the signal-to-background ratio, the quality of the field desorption map, or the amount of multiple events. Of course, the quality of the tomographic reconstruction is an a posteriori criterion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Baptiste Gault

  2. Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxon, UK

    Michael P. Moody

  3. Australian Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Julie M. Cairney & Simon P. Ringer

Authors
  1. Baptiste Gault
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  2. Michael P. Moody
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  3. Julie M. Cairney
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  4. Simon P. Ringer
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Gault, B., Moody, M.P., Cairney, J.M., Ringer, S.P. (2012). Experimental Protocols in Atom Probe Tomography. In: Atom Probe Microscopy. Springer Series in Materials Science, vol 160. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3436-8_6

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