Light Element Quantification in Irradiated Nanostructured Ferritic Alloys

As the local electrode atom probe, and almost all previous generations of instruments, use a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, atom probe tomography (APT) is able to detect, and in most cases quantify, all elements. However, an appropriate pulse repetition rate for the field evaporation pulse, and the associated timing window, must be selected to detect the entire range of elements present. Hence, APT has always been a microanalytical technique for light element analysis and is routinely used for the analysis of Li, Be, B, C, N, and O in a wide variety of materials. Thus, the focus of this paper is on APT analysis of H and He in materials.