A reproducible method for damage-free site-specific preparation of atom probe tips from interfaces

Microscopy Research and Technique

Volumn 75, Issue 4, 2012, Pages 484-491

  Felfer, Peter Johann ^a   Alam, Talukder ^a   Ringer, Simon Peter ^a   Cairney, Julie Marie ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY   (Australia)

Author keywords

Atom probe; Atom probe tomography; Focused ion beam; Grain boundaries; Interface; Ion damage; Lift out; Site specific

Indexed keywords

ATOMS; FOCUSED ION BEAMS; HIGH RESOLUTION TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY; IONS; MASS SPECTROMETRY; PROBES;

ATOM PROBE; ATOM-PROBE TOMOGRAPHY; ATOMIC SCALE; DAMAGE-FREE; FOCUSED IONS BEAMS; GRAIN-BOUNDARIES; ION DAMAGE; LIFT OUTS; PROBE TIPS; SITE-SPECIFIC;

GRAIN BOUNDARIES;

EID: 84858801656     PISSN: 1059910X     EISSN: 10970029     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/jemt.21081     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. Alam T, Chaturvedi M, Ringer SP, Cairney JM. 2010. Precipitation and clustering in the early stages of ageing in Inconel 718. Mater Sci Eng Struct Mater Prop Microstruct Process 527(29-30): 7770-7774.
2. Blavette D, Duval P, Letellier L, Guttmann M. 1996. Atomic-scale APFIM and TEM investigation of grain boundary microchemistry in Astroloy nickel base superalloys. Acta Mater 44(12): 4995-5005.
3. Colijn HO, Kelly TF, Ulfig RM, Buchheit RG. 2004. Site-specific FIB preparation of atom probe samples. Microsc Microanal 10( SupplementS02): 1150-1151.
4. de la Rubia TD, Averback RS, Benedek R, King WE. 1987. Role of thermal spikes in energetic displacement cascades. Phys Rev Lett 59(17): 1930.
5. Felfer P, Ringer SP, Cairney JM. 2011. Shaping the lens of the atom probe: Fabrication of site specific, oriented specimens and application to grain boundary analysis. Ultramicroscopy 111(6): 435-439.
6. Fu L, Lever R, Sears K, Tan HH, Jagadish C. 2005. In0.5Ga0.5As/GaAs quantum dot infrared photodetectors grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. IEEE Electron Device Lett 26(9): 628-630.
7. Gault B, Muller M, La Fontaine A, Moody MP, Shariq A, Cerezo A, Ringer SP, Smith GDW. 2010. Influence of surface migration on the spatial resolution of pulsed laser atom probe tomography. J Appl Phys 108, 044904 (2010); doi:10.1063/1.3462399 (6 pages).
8. Henjered A, Norden H. 1983. A controlled specimen preparation technique for interface studies with atom-probe field-ion microscopy. J Phys E-Sci Instrum 16(7): 617-619.
9. Karlsson L, Andren HO, Norden H. 1982. Grain boundary segregation in an austenitic stainless-steel containing boron - an atom probe study. Scr Metallurg 16(3): 297-302.
10. Kelly TE, Gribb TT, Olson JD, Martens RL, Shepard JD, Wiener SA, Kunicki TC, Ulfig RM, Lenz DR, Strennen EM, Oltman E, Bunton JH, Strait DR. 2004. First data from a commercial local electrode atom probe (LEAP). Microsc Microanal 10(3): 373-383.
11. Kisielowski C, Freitag B, Bischoff M, van Lin H, Lazar S, Knippels G, Tiemeijer P, van der Stam M, von Harrach S, Stekelenburg M, Haider M, Uhlemann S, Muller H, Hartel P, Kabius B, Miller D, Petrov I, Olson EA, Donchev T, Kenik EA, Lupini AR, Bentley J, Pennycook SJ, Anderson IM, Minor AM, Schmid AK, Duden T, Radmilovic V, Ramasse QM, Watanabe M, Erni R, Stach EA, Denes P, Dahmen U. 2008. Detection of single atoms and buried defects in three dimensions by aberration-corrected electron microscope with 0.5-angstrom information limit. Microsc Microanal 14(5): 469-477.
12. Kolling S, Vandervorst W. 2009. Failure mechanisms of silicon-based atom-probe tips. Ultramicroscopy 109(5): 486-491.
13. Krakauer BW, Seidman DN. 1992. Systematic procedures for atom-probe field ion microscopy studies of grain-boundary segregation. Rev Sci Instrum 63(9): 4071-4079.
14. Lai Z, Norden H. 1988. The enhanced concentration of Ni at structural dislocations in a grain-boundary in W. J Phys 49(C-6): 341-345.
15. Maruyama N, Smith GDW, Cerezo A. 2003. Interaction of the solute niobium or molybdenum with grain boundaries in alpha-iron. Mater Sci Eng Struct Mater Prop Microstruct Process 353 (1-2): 126-132.
16. Miller MK. 2000. The development of atom probe field-ion microscopy. Mater Character 44(1-2): 11-27.
17. Miller MK, Cerezo A, Hetherington MG, Smith GDW. 1996. Atom probe field ion microscopy. New York: Oxford University Press.
18. Miller MK, Russell KF, Thompson K, Alvis R, Larson DJ. 2007. Review of atom probe FIB-based specimen preparation methods. Microsc Microanal 13(6): 428-436.
19. Molhave K. 2004. Tools for in-situ manipulation and characterization of nanostructures. Lyngby: Technical University of Denmark. p. 209
20. Nastasi M, Mayer JW, Hirvonen JK. 1996. Ion-solid interactions: fundamentals and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
21. Papazian JM. 1971. Preparation of field-ion-microscope specimens containing grain-boundaries. J Microsc-Oxford 94(NAUG): 63-64.
22. Perez-Willard Fn, Wolde-Giorgis D, Al-Kassab Tt, Lupez GA, Mittemeijer EJ, Kirchheim R, Gerthsen D. 2008. Focused ion beam preparation of atom probe specimens containing a single crystallographically well-defined grain boundary. Micron 39(1): 45-52.
23. Rachbauer R, Massl S, Stergar E, Felfer P, Mayrhofer PH. 2010. Atom probe specimen preparation and 3D interfacial study of Ti-Al-N thin films. Surf Coat Technol 204(11): 1811-1816.
24. Saxey DW, Cairney JM, McGrouther D, Honma T, Ringer SP. 2007. Atom probe specimen fabrication methods using a dual FIB/SEM. Ultramicroscopy 107(9): 756-760.
25. Schlesiger R, Oberdorfer C, Wurz R, Greiwe G, Stender P, Artmeier M, Pelka P, Spaleck F, Schmitz G. 2010. Design of a laser-assisted tomographic atom probe at Munster University. Rev Sci Instrum 81, 043703 (2010); doi:10.1063/1.3378674 (8 pages).
26. Shibata N, Findlay SD, Azuma S, Mizoguchi T, Yamamoto T, Ikuhara Y. 2009. Atomic-scale imaging of individual dopant atoms in a buried interface. Nature Mater 8(8): 654-658.
27. Sigmund P. 1973. Mechanism of surface micro-roughening by ion bombardment. J Mater Sci 8(11): 1545-1553.
28. Tang FZ, Gault B, Ringer SP, Cairney JM. 2010. Optimization of pulsed laser atom probe (PLAP) for the analysis of nanocomposite Ti-Si-N films. Ultramicroscopy 110(7): 836-843.
29. Thompson K, Lawrence D, Larson DJ, Olson JD, Kelly TF, Gorman B. 2007. In situ site-specific specimen preparation for atom probe tomography. Ultramicroscopy 107(2-3): 131-139.
30. Tsong TT. 1978. Field-ion image formation. Surf Sci 70(1): 211-233.
31. Waugh AR, Southon MJ. 1979. Surface-analysis and grain-boundary segregation measurements using atom-probe techniques. Surf Sci 89(1-3): 718-724.
32. Xie K, Yao L, Zhu C, Cairney J, Killmore C, Barbaro F, Williams J, Ringer S. 2011. Effect of Nb microalloying and hot rolling on microstructure and properties of ultrathin cast strip steels produced by the castrip® process. Metallurg Mater Trans A 42(8): 2199-2206.
33. Yao L, Cairney JM, Zhu C, Ringer SP. 2011. Optimisation of specimen temperature and pulse fraction in atom probe microscopy experiments on a microalloyed steel. Ultramicroscopy 111(6): 648-651.
34. Ziegler J, Biersack J, Littmark U. 2010. The stopping and range of ions in matter.