Visualizing local fast ionic conduction pathways in nanocrystalline lanthanum manganite by isotope exchange-atom probe tomography

Atom probe tomography in nanoelectronics

The role of laser assisted atom probe tomography (APT) in microelectronics is discussed on the basis of various illustrations related to SiGe epitaxial layers, bipolar transistors or MOS nano-devices including gate all around (GAA) devices that were carried out at the Groupe de Physique des Matériaux of Rouen (France). 3D maps as provided by APT reveal the atomic-scale distribution of dopants a...

TOPICAL REVIEW Diffusion and Ionic Conduction in Nanocrystalline Ceramics

We review case studies of diffusion in nanocrystalline ceramics, i. e. polycrystalline non-metallic materials with average grain sizes typically in the range from 5 nm to 50 nm. The experimental methods applied are on the one hand tracer diffusion or conductivity methods which are sensitive to macroscopic transport, on the other hand NMR techniques which, complementarily to the previous ones, g...

Point-by-point compositional analysis for atom probe tomography

This new alternate approach to data processing for analyses that traditionally employed grid-based counting methods is necessary because it removes a user-imposed coordinate system that not only limits an analysis but also may introduce errors. We have modified the widely used "binomial" analysis for APT data by replacing grid-based counting with coordinate-independent nearest neighbour identif...

Toward atom probe tomography of microelectronic devices

Atom Probe Tomography of Oxide Scales

Atom probe tomography, APT, is the only microstructural method that can routinely analyse and position individual atoms in a material with a spatial resolution of 0.1-0.5 nm. Recent implementation of pulsed-laser to APT made investigation of less conducting materials, such as oxides, feasible. In this paper a short description of the principle of the techniques is presented. It is followed by e...