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Center for Atom Probe Tomography (NUCAPT)

Atom-probe tomography (APT) is a microanalytical instrument producing an atom-by-atom three-dimensional reconstruction of a sample, with sub-nanometer resolution with a typical analyzed volume of about 150 x 150 x 500 nm3 . APT is particularly suitable to investigate nano-structured materials. Typical micro- and nanostructural features studied are: composition and morphology of second-phase precipitates or small clusters of solute atoms, compositional variation in modulated structures, multi-layer thin-film structures, dopant profiles of semiconductor structures (transistors), and analysis of the chemistry and topology of internal interfaces. Specimen preparation of almost any material is now possible employing a dual-beam focused-ion beam (FIB) microscope, which allows targeted sample preparation of a specific feature, such as a grain boundary or an individual transistor in a semiconductor device.

Facility Type: 
Atom probe

Instruments

  1. 8 TB data server
  2. Arc Melter

    Arc-melting is a fast and clean way of producing alloys of electrically conductive materials. The raw materials are placed on a water-cooled hearth in a vacuum chamber. After evacuation, the chamber is re-filled with Argon to be employed as an inert working gas. An electric arc is produced with a pointed electrode which heats the raw materials above their melting point, fusing them into an alloy droplet. The facility operates a MAM-1 arc melter manufactured by Edmund Bhler GmbH, Germany. The arc melter can process about 10-15 grams of material in one melting charge.

  3. ESKPLA

    Nd:YAG laser Cavity dumped active/passive mode-locked 35 ps pulses at 10 Hz. Doubled and tripled frequency outputs. Optical Parametric Amplifier BBO crystal based, tunable from 400 nm - 2.2 micron. Driven by the Continuum YAG laser.

  4. Five individual high-end PC workstations

    for running IVAS for LEAP-data reconstruction and analysis

  5. Ion-beam sputter system (IBS/e) manufactured by South Bay Technologies

    This system is utilized for depositing high-quality thin films for: (1) generating multi-layer structures; and (2) to assist with LEAP-tip preparation by FIB milling where the thin-film deposit marks and protects a sample?s surface when milling with gallium ions. The ion-beam sputter system does not use magnetron-based sputter guns and therefore is suitable for the deposition of magnetic materials, such as iron, nickel, and cobalt.

  6. LEAP 4000XSI manufactured by Imago Scientific Instruments, Madison, Wisconsin

    This instrument, a local electrode atom-probe (LEAP) tomograph, has an ultrafast detector capable of collecting up to 360 million ions per hour. Ions are evaporated from a sample’s surface either by voltage or ultraviolet (UV) laser pulses, which allows for the analysis of a broad spectrum of materials: metals, semiconductors, ceramics, biominerals, organic and biological samples, albeit with different degrees of success.

  7. Microway AMD Quad-core Opteron cluster

    This cluster is currently optimized for performing VASP DFT calculations and lattice kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. With 31 nodes and 62 quad-core processors, with a total of 248 CPUs, 372 GB shared-memory and high-quality fiber- optical DDR InfiniBand Network for large-scale parallel calculations

  8. Specimen preparation laboratory

    A specimen preparation laboratory for preparing needle-shaped specimens for atom-probe tomography. Our lab features a high-speed precision saw to cut specimen blanks, an electropolishing station with a high-resolution stereo-microscope, and a commercial Simplex Electropointer automated electropolisher.

  9. Workstation for Thermocalc, DICTra and MedeA simulations