Study on the scale and the mechanism of the reconstruction artifacts in atom probe tomography analysis using field evaporation simulation

Abstract

Atom Probe Tomography (APT) is an analytical technique specialized in investigating structure-composition-property relationship due to its capability of obtaining 3-dimensional information on the specimen in atomic-scale spatial and chemical resolution. Until recently, studies using APT have been mainly focused on bulk metal or semiconductors, and standardized sample preparation method for nanomaterials has not been established yet. Furthermore, Local magnification effect-induced artifacts caused by large evaporation field difference has been another obstacle in using APT in nanomaterial analysis. In this study, a pulsed-electrodeposition based sample preparation method for nanomaterials have been proposed. Using TAPSim, a 3-dimensional field evaporation simulation software package, the scale and the mechanisms of artifacts observed in APT analysis were studied.