Frontiers of atom probe tomography physics, data processing, and analysis

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances and challenges in atom probe tomography, emphasizing the need for standardized workflows and improved understanding of physical processes to enhance data interpretation and reproducibility.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in APT physics, data processing, and analysis, highlighting the importance of standardization and community efforts.

Findings

Recent progress in modeling field evaporation.

Identification of common artifacts in reconstructed data.

Emphasis on the need for standardized protocols.

Abstract

Atom probe tomography (APT) fills a crucial need in the characterization workflow of materials by its ability to inform the 3D chemical microstructure at the nanoscale. As with any characterization techniques, APT has strengths and limitations that inform the interpretation of the data. Therefore, a challenge for the materials characterization community, and the APT community in particular, is the need to establish repeatable and reproducible workflows around the APT data acquisition, reconstruction, analysis, and sharing, in order to inform interpretation. Data interpretation also requires the continued development of our understanding of the physical processes responsible for field evaporation. We review recent developments in the experimental analysis of field evaporation and in the modeling of field evaporation leading to new understanding of common artifacts observed in reconstructed data. We then discuss current challenges with data analysis, translation of results, and data interpretation in the absence of community-agreed standards, and therefore, the crucial need for standardization at every stage of APT research, from data collection all the way to data reporting. This perspective is a summary of the invited presentations and discussions that took place during a workshop (August 4-5, 2024, Alexandria, Virginia, USA).