Advance in multi-hit detection and quantization in atom probe tomography.

The preferential retention of high evaporation field chemical species at the sample surface in atom-probe tomography (e.g., boron in silicon or in metallic alloys) leads to correlated field evaporation and pronounced pile-up effects on the detector. The latter severely affects the reliability of concentration measurements of current 3D atom probes leading to an under-estimation of the concentrations of the high-field species. The multi-hit capabilities of the position-sensitive time-resolved detector is shown to play a key role. An innovative method based on Fourier space signal processing of signals supplied by an advance delay-line position-sensitive detector is shown to drastically improve the time resolving power of the detector and consequently its capability to detect multiple events. Results show that up to 30 ions on the same evaporation pulse can be detected and properly positioned. The major impact of this new method on the quantization of chemical composition in materials, particularly in highly-doped Si(B) samples is highlighted.