Electrostatic simulations of a local electrode atom probe: The dependence of tomographic reconstruction parameters on specimen and microscope geometry

Abstract

We electrostatically model a local electrode atom probe microscope using the commercial software IES LORENTZ 2D v9.0 to investigate factors affecting the reconstruction parameters. We find strong dependences on the specimen geometry and voltage, and moderate dependences on the tip-aperture separation, which confirm that the current approach to atom probe reconstruction overlooks too many factors. Based on our data, which are in excellent agreement with known trends and experimental results, we derive a set of empirical relations which predict the values of the reconstruction parameters. These may be used to advance current reconstruction protocols by enabling the parameters to be adjusted as the specimen geometry changes.