Practical Applications and Recent Advances in Combined Atom Probe Tomography and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope

Abstract

This review article presents the principles of atom probe tomography (APT) and its development history with the latest practical applications. Recently, the technique of APT has dramatically changed. Especially, a combination of focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) techniques with APT allows us to measure small areas of samples such as a specific dislocation of GaN by APT. This makes a great improvement in the failure analysis techniques on electric devices. On the other hand, the development of vacuum and cryo transfer module (VCTM) on APT leads the application of APT to a broader range of elements and/or materials such as hydrogen analysis and biological samples, respectively. We also describe the future developments of APT.