Cameca Instruments, Inc.

Ge-lunar Corporation

Daniel Robert Lenz

Joseph Hale Bunton

Jesse D Olson

Tye Travis Gribb

Scott A Wiener

James Wear

Thomas F Kelly

Robert A Washenko

Dana Jeffrey Shepard

Randall K Payne

An atom probe directs two or more pulsed laser beams onto a specimen, with each laser beam being on a different side of the specimen, and with each laser beam supplying pulses at a time different from the other laser beams. The laser beams are preferably generated by splitting a single beam provided by a laser source. The laser beams are preferably successively aligned incident with the specimen by one or more beam steering mirrors, which may also scan each laser beam over the specimen to achieve a desired degree of specimen ionization.

Energy beam input to atom probe specimens from multiple angles

An atom probe includes a detector which registers the time of flight of ions evaporated from a specimen, as well as the positions on the detector at which the ions impact and the kinetic energies of the ions. The detected position allows the original locations of the ions on the specimen to be mapped, and the times of flight and kinetic energies can be spectrally analyzed (e.g., binned into sets of like values) to determine the elemental identities of the ions. The use of kinetic energy data as well as time of flight data can allow more accurate identification of composition than where time of flight data are used alone, as in traditional atom probes.

Methods and devices for improving atom probe detector performance

A laser atom probe situates a counter electrode between a specimen mount and a detector, and provides a laser having its beam aligned to illuminate the specimen through the aperture of the counter electrode. The detector, specimen mount, and/or the counter electrode may be charged to some boost voltage and then be pulsed to bring the specimen to ionization. The timing of the laser pulses may be used to determine ion departure and arrival times allowing determination of the mass-to-charge ratios of the ions, thus their identities. Automated alignment methods are described wherein the laser is automatically directed to areas of interest.

Laser atom probe methods

In an atom probe or other mass spectrometer wherein a specimen is subjected to ionizing pulses (voltage pulses, thermal pulses, etc.) which induce field evaporation of ions from the specimen, the evaporated ions are then subjected to corrective pulses which are synchronized with the ionizing pulses. These corrective pulses have a magnitude and timing sufficient to reduce the velocity distribution of the evaporated ions, thereby resulting in increased mass resolution for the atom probe/mass spectrometer. In a preferred arrangement, ionizing pulses are supplied to the specimen from a first counter electrode adjacent the specimen. The corrective pulses are then supplied from a second counter electrode which is coupled to the first via a passive or active network, with the network controlling the form (timing, amplitude, and shape) of the corrective pulses.

Methods and devices for atom probe mass resolution enhancement

An energy discriminator, for distinguishing between high and low x-ray energies in a energy sensitive x-ray machine divides high energies into asymmetric regions. The flux rates in each of the asymmetric regions being used to locate the high-energy region in the appropriate high-energy location even in regions of spectral monotonicity. Because two clearly defined spectral peaks need not be present for accurate location of spectral regions in the output of the detector, less filtering and lower tube loading is required.

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Stoughton, WI, United States of America

Daniel Robert Lenz