Scanning EM in very high electric fields near field ion/emission specimens

Author(s):  
David J. Larson ◽  
Patrick P. Camus ◽  
Thomas F. Kelly

An atom probe field ion microscope (APFIM) has been constructed inside a NORAN Instruments Automated Digital Electron Microscope (ADEM). The ADEM is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a field emission source and a very large vacuum chamber. The APFIM has positive and negative high voltage capability and uses a microchannel-plate/phosphor screen assembly as an imaging and single-ion detector. The APFIM specimen can be cooled by a cryogenic refrigerator. The motivation for this study was the need to deliver an electron beam to the apex of an APFIM specimen while a high field is applied. The beam will be used to thermally pulse the field evaporation rate. The expected field-induced image shift and distortion has been studied previously in a transmission EM with a liquid metal field emission source as a specimen.Fig. 1 shows the interior of the instrument. Computer simulations were done for electron trajectories with negative and positive voltages applied to the emitter based on a simple paraboloidal electric field model described previously.

Author(s):  
J. J. Hren ◽  
S. D. Walck

The field ion microscope (FIM) has had the ability to routinely image the surface atoms of metals since Mueller perfected it in 1956. Since 1967, the TOF Atom Probe has had single atom sensitivity in conjunction with the FIM. “Why then hasn't the FIM enjoyed the success of the electron microscope?” The answer is closely related to the evolution of FIM/Atom Probe techniques and the available technology. This paper will review this evolution from Mueller's early discoveries, to the development of a viable commercial instrument. It will touch upon some important contributions of individuals and groups, but will not attempt to be all inclusive. Variations in instrumentation that define the class of problems for which the FIM/AP is uniquely suited and those for which it is not will be described. The influence of high electric fields inherent to the technique on the specimens studied will also be discussed. The specimen geometry as it relates to preparation, statistical sampling and compatibility with the TEM will be examined.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. eabd7259
Author(s):  
Angela Vella ◽  
Jonathan Houard ◽  
Laurent Arnoldi ◽  
Mincheng Tang ◽  
Matthias Boudant ◽  
...  

Ultrafast control of matter by a strong electromagnetic field on the atomic scale is essential for future investigations and manipulations of ionization dynamics and excitation in solids. Coupling picosecond duration terahertz pulses to metallic nanostructures allows the generation of extremely localized and intense electric fields. Here, using single-cycle terahertz pulses, we demonstrate control over field ion emission from metallic nanotips. The terahertz near field is shown to induce an athermal ultrafast evaporation of surface atoms as ions on the subpicosecond time scale, with the tip acting as a field amplifier. The ultrafast terahertz-ion interaction offers unprecedented control over ultrashort free-ion pulses for imaging, analyzing, and manipulating matter at atomic scales. Here, we demonstrate terahertz atom probe microscopy as a new platform for microscopy with atomic spatial resolution and ultimate chemical resolution.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 305-312
Author(s):  
Ryan Cardman ◽  
Luís F. Gonçalves ◽  
Rachel E. Sapiro ◽  
Georg Raithel ◽  
David A. Anderson

AbstractWe present electric field measurements and imaging of a Yagi–Uda antenna near-field using a Rydberg atom–based radio frequency electric field measurement instrument. The instrument uses electromagnetically induced transparency with Rydberg states of cesium atoms in a room-temperature vapor and off-resonant RF-field–induced Rydberg-level shifts for optical SI-traceable measurements of RF electric fields over a wide amplitude and frequency range. The electric field along the antenna boresight is measured using the atomic probe at a spatial resolution of ${\lambda }_{RF}/2$ with electric field measurement uncertainties below 5.5%, an improvement to RF measurement uncertainties provided by existing antenna standards.


1984 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. D. Walck ◽  
J. J. Hren

AbstractAccurate depth profiling of implanted hydrogen and its isotopes in metals is extremely important. Field ion microscopy and atom-probe techniques provide the most accurate depth profiling analytical method of any available. In addition, they are extremely sensitive to hydrogen. This paper reports our early work on hydrogen trapping at defects in metals using the Field Ion Microscope/Imaging Atom Probe (FIM/IAP). Our results deal primarily with the control experiments required to overcome instrumental difficulties associated with in situ implantation and the influence of a high electric field. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) has been used extensively to independently examine the influence of high electric fields on emitters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 274-279
Author(s):  
John A. Panitz

AbstractThe atom-probe field ion microscope was introduced in 1967 at the 14th Field Emission Symposium held at the National Bureau of Standards (now, NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The atom-probe field ion microscope was, and remains, the only instrument capable of determining “the nature of one single atom seen on a metal surface and selected from neighboring atoms at the discretion of the observer”. The development of the atom-probe is a story of an instrument that one National Science Foundation (NSF) reviewer called “impossible because single atoms could not be detected”. It is also a story of my life with Erwin Wilhelm Müller as his graduate student in the Field Emission Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University in the late 1960s and his strong and volatile personality, perhaps fostered by his pedigree as Gustav Hertz’s student in the Berlin of the 1930s. It is the story that has defined by scientific career.


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