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Evaluation of Analysis Conditions for Laser-Pulsed Atom Probe Tomography: Example of Cemented Tungsten Carbide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2017

Zirong Peng Open the ORCID record for Zirong Peng [Opens in a new window] ,
Pyuck-Pa Choi ,
Baptiste Gault  and
Dierk Raabe
Zirong Peng*
Affiliation:
Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Pyuck-Pa Choi
Affiliation:
Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-338, Republic of Korea
Baptiste Gault*
Affiliation:
Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Dierk Raabe
Affiliation:
Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design, Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
*
*Corresponding authors.z.peng@mpie.de; b.gault@mpie.de
*Corresponding authors.z.peng@mpie.de; b.gault@mpie.de
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Abstract

Cemented tungsten carbide has been analyzed using laser-pulsed atom probe tomography (APT). The influence of experimental parameters, including laser pulse energy, pulse repetition rate, and specimen base temperature, on the acquired data were evaluated from different aspects, such as mass spectrum, chemical composition, noise-to-signal ratio, and multiple events. Within all the applied analysis conditions, only 1 MHz pulse repetition rate led to a strong detector saturation effect, resulting in a largely biased chemical composition. A comparative study of the laser energy settings showed that an ~12 times higher energy was required for the less focused green laser of the LEAPTM 3000X HR system to achieve a similar evaporation field as the finer spot ultraviolet laser of the LEAPTM 5000 XS system.

Keywords

atom probe tomographylaser-pulsingdata qualitytungsten carbide
Type
Materials Science (Nonmetals)
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 23 , Special Issue 2: Atom Probe Tomography & Microscopy 2016 , April 2017 , pp. 431 - 442
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2016 

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