TY - JOUR
T1 - Specimen preparation for correlating transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography of mesoscale features
AU - Hartshorne, Matthew I.
AU - Isheim, Dieter
AU - Seidman, David N.
AU - Taheri, Mitra L.
N1 - Funding Information:
MLT and MIH acknowledge funding support from the Carpenter Technology Corporation and the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program (grant 1150807 ). APT experiments conducted at NUCAPT, a shared research facility at the Materials Research Center of Northwestern University , were partially supported by the NSF-MRSEC program ( DMR-0520513 ). The LEAP tomograph at NUCAPT was purchased and upgraded with funding from NSF-MRI ( DMR-0420532 ) and ONR-DURIP ( N00014-0400798 , N00014-0610539 , N00014-0910781 ) grants. Additional instrumentation at NUCAPT was supported by the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern (ISEN) .
PY - 2014/12
Y1 - 2014/12
N2 - Atom-probe tomography (APT) provides atomic-scale spatial and compositional resolution that is ideally suited for the analysis of grain boundaries. The small sample volume analyzed in APT presents, however, a challenge for capturing mesoscale features, such as grain boundaries. A new site-specific method utilizing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for the precise selection and isolation of mesoscale microstructural features in a focused-ion-beam (FIB) microscope lift-out sample, from below the original surface of the bulk sample, for targeted preparation of an APT microtip by FIB-SEM microscopy is presented. This methodology is demonstrated for the targeted extraction of a prior austenite grain boundary in a martensitic steel alloy; it can, however, be easily applied to other mesoscale features, such as heterophase interfaces, precipitates, and the tips of cracks.
AB - Atom-probe tomography (APT) provides atomic-scale spatial and compositional resolution that is ideally suited for the analysis of grain boundaries. The small sample volume analyzed in APT presents, however, a challenge for capturing mesoscale features, such as grain boundaries. A new site-specific method utilizing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for the precise selection and isolation of mesoscale microstructural features in a focused-ion-beam (FIB) microscope lift-out sample, from below the original surface of the bulk sample, for targeted preparation of an APT microtip by FIB-SEM microscopy is presented. This methodology is demonstrated for the targeted extraction of a prior austenite grain boundary in a martensitic steel alloy; it can, however, be easily applied to other mesoscale features, such as heterophase interfaces, precipitates, and the tips of cracks.
KW - Atom probe tomography
KW - Focused ion beam
KW - Transmission electron microscopy
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ultramic.2014.05.005
DO - 10.1016/j.ultramic.2014.05.005
M3 - Article
C2 - 24976357
AN - SCOPUS:84903487221
VL - 147
SP - 25
EP - 32
JO - Ultramicroscopy
JF - Ultramicroscopy
SN - 0304-3991
ER -