Field of view has been increased by approximately 2.5 times compared to previous versions of the instrument, without sacrificing mass resolution
Oxford Nanoscience has announced a major enhancement to its voltage-pulsed and laser-pulsed three dimensional atom probes (3DAPs).
The field of view has been increased by approximately 2.5 times compared to previous versions of the instrument.
The key feature of this improvement is that it has been achieved without sacrificing mass resolution.
Analysing larger volumes of the sample not only allows larger clusters and precipitates to be identified, but also gives improved statistical accuracy on measurements of smaller clusters.
The 3DAP works by evaporating individual atoms from a needle-shaped sample and, as each atom is extracted, its atomic mass is measured, and then a detector determines the exact position in the original sample that the atom came from.
The process is repeated for literally millions of atoms.
Oxford Nanoscience's proprietary PoSap software then analyses the data, producing a mass spectrum which shows the chemical composition of the material, and a three-dimensional atomic model of the sample, where each atom can be colour coded according to its chemical identity.
Instruments with a wide field of view normally suffer from poor mass resolution.
However improvements to the ion optics used in the 3DAP series has allowed existing mass resolution to be maintained even with the increased sample volume.
Good mass resolution produces extremely narrow spectral peaks without trailing edges, which allows small concentrations of elements to be determined accurately.
