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Atom-Probe Tomography of Nickel-Based Superalloys with Green or Ultraviolet Lasers: A Comparative Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2012

Yaron Amouyal  and
David N. Seidman
Yaron Amouyal
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-3108, USA
David N. Seidman*
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-3108, USA Northwestern UniversityCenter for Atom Probe Tomography (NUCAPT), Evanston, IL 60208-3108, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: d-seidman@northwestern.edu
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Abstract

Recent developments in the technology of laser-pulsed local-electrode atom-probe (LEAP) tomography include a picosecond ultraviolet (UV) laser system having a 355 nm wavelength and both external and in-vacuum optics. This approach ensures focusing of the laser beam to a smaller spot diameter than has heretofore been obtained using a green (532 nm wavelength) picosecond laser. We compare the mass spectra acquired, using either green or UV laser pulsing, from nickel-based superalloy specimens prepared either electrochemically or by lifting-out from bulk material using ion-beam milling in a dual-beam focused ion beam microscope. The utilization of picosecond UV laser pulsing yields improved mass spectra, which manifests itself in higher signal-to-noise ratios and mass-resolving power (m/Δm) in comparison to green laser pulsing. We employ LEAP tomography to investigate the formation of misoriented defects in nickel-based superalloys and demonstrate that UV laser pulsing yields better accuracy in compositional quantification than does green laser pulsing. Furthermore, we show that using a green laser the quality of mass spectra collected from specimens that were lifted-out by ion milling is usually poorer than for electrochemically-sharpened specimens. Employing UV laser pulsing yields, however, improved mass spectra in comparison to green laser pulsing even for ion-milled microtips.

Keywords

atom probe tomographygreen-laser pulsingultraviolet laser pulsingnickel-based superalloyssignal-to-noise ratiomass-resolving power
Type
Techniques and Equipment Development
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 18 , Issue 5 , October 2012 , pp. 971 - 981
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2012

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Footnotes

†

Now at Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel

References

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