Spatial and Compositional Biases Introduced by Position Sensitive Detection Systems in APT: A Simulation Approach

Due to the low capacity of contemporary position-sensitive detectors in atom probe tomography (APT) to detect multiple events, material analyses that exhibit high numbers of multiple events are the most subject to compositional biases. To solve this limitation, some researchers have developed statistical correction algorithms. However, those algorithms are only efficient when one is confronted with homogeneous materials having nearly the same evaporation field between elements. Therefore, dealing with more complex materials must be accompanied by a better understanding of the signal loss mechanism during APT experiments. By modeling the evaporation mechanism and the whole APT detection system, it may be possible to predict compositional and spatial biases induced by the detection system. This paper introduces a systematic study of the impact of the APT detection system on material analysis through the development of a simulation tool.