Field Ion Microscopy and Atom probe tomography
Fra NanoWiki
Field-Ion microscopy
This method is used to view the arrangement of atoms at the surface of a sharp metal tip. In other words, the specimen is the tip of a needle. The metal tip is brought into a high vacuum chamber, and a high voltage is applied to the tip. The atoms on the surface of the tip become positively charged by ionization and are repelled from the tip. They direction of repel is perpendicular to the surface, and the curved surface causes the magnification. A detector collects the ions and the image formed by these ions can be enough to achieve atomic resolution of the surface.
