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Estimation of the Reconstruction Parameters for Atom Probe Tomography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2008

Baptiste Gault ,
Frederic de Geuser ,
Leigh T. Stephenson ,
Michael P. Moody ,
Barrington C. Muddle  and
Simon P. Ringer
Baptiste Gault*
Affiliation:
Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Frederic de Geuser
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Leigh T. Stephenson
Affiliation:
Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Michael P. Moody
Affiliation:
Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Barrington C. Muddle
Affiliation:
ARC Centre of Excellence for Design in Light Metals, Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
Simon P. Ringer
Affiliation:
Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: baptiste.gault@emu.usyd.edu.au
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Abstract

The application of wide field-of-view detection systems to atom probe experiments emphasizes the importance of careful parameter selection in the tomographic reconstruction of the analyzed volume, as the sensitivity to errors rises steeply with increases in analysis dimensions. In this article, a self-consistent method is presented for the systematic determination of the main reconstruction parameters. In the proposed approach, the compression factor and the field factor are determined using geometrical projections from the desorption images. A three-dimensional Fourier transform is then applied to a series of reconstructions, and after comparing to the known material crystallography, the efficiency of the detector is estimated. The final results demonstrate a significant improvement in the accuracy of the reconstructed volumes.

Keywords

atom probe tomography (APT)three-dimensional reconstructionFourier analysisfield desorption microscopydata analysisspatial resolution
Type
Microanalysis
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , August 2008 , pp. 296 - 305
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2008

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