Position-sensitive Atom Probe POSAP

POSAP is the only technique available for identifying and locating precipitates, second phases, particles, and interfaces on an atomic scale, and has therefore found considerable application in metallurgical and semiconductor problems. 

Surface and Thin Film Analysis Principles, Instrumentation, Applications 181 

Edited by H. Bubert and H. Jenett Copyright 2002 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH ISBNs 3-527-30458-4 (Hardback) 3-527-60016-7 (Electronic) 

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The atom probe field-ion microscope (APFIM) and its subsequent developments, the position-sensitive atom probe (POSAP) and the pulsed laser atom probe (PLAP), have the ultimate sensitivity in compositional analysis (i.e. single atoms). FIM is purely an imaging technique in which the specimen in the form of a needle with a very fine point (radius 10-100 nm) is at low temperature (liquid nitrogen or helium) and surrounded by a noble gas (He, Ne, or Ar) at 10 -10 Pa. A fluorescent screen or a... 

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