Laser assisted atom probe analysis of thin film on insulating substrate

M Kodzuka; T Ohkubo; K Hono

doi:10.1016/j.ultramic.2010.11.008

Laser assisted atom probe analysis of thin film on insulating substrate

Ultramicroscopy. 2011 May;111(6):557-61. doi: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2010.11.008. Epub 2010 Nov 19.

Authors

M Kodzuka¹, T Ohkubo, K Hono

Affiliation

¹ Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba 305-0047, Japan. KODZUKA.Masaya@nims.go.jp

PMID: 21172729
DOI: 10.1016/j.ultramic.2010.11.008

Abstract

We demonstrate that the atom probe analyses of metallic thin films on insulating substrates are possible using laser assisted field evaporation. The tips with metallic thin film and insulating substrate (0.6-3 μm in thickness) were prepared by the lift-out and annular ion beam milling techniques on tungsten supports. In spite of the existence of thick insulating layer between the metallic film and the tungsten support, atom probe tomography with practical mass resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and spatial resolution was found to be possible using laser assisted field evaporation.