METHODS AND DEVICES FOR ATOM PROBE MASS RESOLUTION ENHANCEMENT

摘要

In specimen atom probe (300) in a mass spectrometer (302) includes a voltage pulse (312) applied to the (300) and a first counter electrode (310) for producing a field ionizing pulse evaporation of ions (308) from the specimen (300); and the evaporated ions (308) subjected to corrective pulses which are synchronized with the ionizing pulses. These corrective pulses have a magnitude and timing sufficient to reduce the velocity distribution of the evaporated ions (308) for increasing mass resolution for the mass spectrometer (302) and are supplied from a second counter electrode (314) which is coupled to the first electrode (310) via an active network (322).