Numeric modeling of synchronous laser pulsing and voltage pulsing field evaporation

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical model simulating field evaporation in atom probes triggered by synchronized laser and voltage pulses, incorporating effects like photoconductivity, temperature rise, and pulse distortion.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive numerical simulation framework for understanding laser and voltage pulse-induced evaporation in atom probes, considering multiple physical effects.

Findings

The model accurately predicts evaporation behavior under combined laser and voltage pulsing.

Photoconductive effects significantly influence the evaporation process.

Temperature rise and pulse distortion impact the precision of atom probe measurements.

Abstract

We have recently proposed an atom probe design based on a femtosecond time-resolved pump-probe setup. This setup unlocks the limitation of voltage pulsed mode atom probe thanks to the occurrence of local photoconductive switching effect . In this paper, we have used a numerical model to simulate the field evaporation process triggered by the synchronous two pulses. The model takes into account the local photoconductive effect and the temperature rise caused by the laser application and the voltage pulse distortion due to the RC effect.