Mechanisms and Energetics of Surface Atomic Processes, an Atom-Probe Field Ion Microscope Study

Abstract

AbstractAtom-probe field ion microscopy is capable of imaging solid surfaces with atomic resolution, and at the same time chemically analyzing atoms selected by the observer from the atomic image. The samples are restricted to those having a tip shape, but in many cases this is no longer a drawback since structures in high-tech materials are reducing in size to that comparable to or smaller than the field ion emitter tip. This technique is finding many applications in different areas. Our recent applications of this technique to the study of the dynamical behavior of surfaces and surface atoms and their mechanisms and energetics, and the atomic scale chemical and composition analysis will be briefly described.