A new step towards the lattice reconstruction in 3DAP.

The spatial resolution of images produced by 3DAP is known not to be limited by the detector performance but by the physics of field ionisation and field evaporation. This resolution can be expressed by two parameters: the depth resolution and the lateral resolution, which have been shown to achieve, respectively, 0.06 and 0.2nm in an ideal case of a pure metal. By using this model and these values, the resolution along any crystallographic direction can be predicted. In addition, it is possible to predict the suitable sites of analysis where a given type of atomic planes can be resolved. Furthermore, it is shown that three types of planes with non-coplanar directions can be imaged in 3D reconstructed volumes. Thus, the reconstruction of the original tungsten lattice can be achieved with the use of Fourier Transform image analysis techniques. It is shown that the reliability of the method can be achieve the value of 90%.