FEI Company and Imago Scientific Instruments have announced that Chalmers University has installed Imago's Leap 3000X HR atom probe in its Applied Physics Microscopy and Microanalysis facility.
The atomic-scale, three-dimensional imaging and analysis provided by the atom probe complements the capabilities of the university's existing suite of FEI systems, which include: Titan 80-300 scanning transmission electron microscope (S/TEM), Strata DB-235 DualBeam, and Quanta 200 environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM).
Don Kania, president and chief executive of FEI, said: 'FEI and Imago recently announced a collaboration on the distribution and marketing of Imago's Leap product line, as the microscopes are complementary to the FEI Titan family of S/TEM.' Krystyna Stiller, Chalmers professor, added: 'The Leap atom probe can build a three-dimensional representation of the sample that includes the type and location of every atom in the sampled volume.
'Like TEM, it can interrogate the sample on the scale of individual atoms, but it provides information that is different and complementary.
'For example, the projection mechanism of TEM is good at visualising spatial relationships among atoms (crystallography), whereas the atom-by-atom mass-based identification of the atom probe can distinguish among atomic species that would generate little contrast in TEM.
'The atom probe also side-steps TEM's requirement for ultrathin samples and eliminates the thickness of the sample as a factor determining the quality of the result.'
