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Analysis of Three-dimensional Atom-probe Data by the Proximity Histogram

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2002

Olof C. Hellman*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2225 N. Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3108
Justin A. Vandenbroucke
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2225 N. Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3108
Järg Rüsing
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2225 N. Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3108
Dieter Isheim
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2225 N. Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3108
David N. Seidman
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2225 N. Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3108
*
*Corresponding author
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Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) atom-probe technique produces a reconstruction of the elemental chemical identities and three-dimensional positions of atoms field evaporated from a sharply pointed metal specimen, with a local radius of curvature of less than 50 nm. The number of atoms collected can be on the order of one million, representing an analysis volume of approximately 20 nm × 20 nm × 200 nm (80,000 nm3). This large amount of data allows for the identification of microstructural features in a sample, such as grain or heterophase boundaries, if the feature density is large enough. Correlation of the measured atomic positions with these identified features results in an atom-by-atom description of the chemical environment of crystallographic defects. This article outlines a data compilation technique for the generation of composition profiles in the vicinity of interfaces in a geometrically independent way. This approach is applied to quantitative determination of interfacial segregation of silver at a MgO/Cu(Ag) heterophase interface.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2000

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Footnotes

Department of Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4060.