Study of proper conditions for quantitative atom-probe analysis

Abstract Atom-probe microanalysis is a truly quantitative method only if certain requirements are fulfilled. Field evaporation must only happen when the detector system is active; ions must travel from specimen to detector without being obstructed; and ions must be detected with the same probability regardless of mass and energy. Designs and methods to achieve these requirements are presented in the paper, such as a controlled high-voltage pulser, a detector with good and variable multi-hit resolution, ion optical alignment procedures, and a method to statistically correct for pile-up in the detector.