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Correlating Atom Probe Tomography with Atomic-Resolved Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy: Example of Segregation at Silicon Grain Boundaries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2017

Andreas Stoffers*
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Otto-Blumenthal-Straβe, 52074 Aachen, Germany Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straβe 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Juri Barthel
Affiliation:
Central Facility for Electron Microscopy, RWTH Aachen University, Ahornstraβe 55, 52074 Aachen, Germany Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Christian H. Liebscher
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straβe 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Baptiste Gault
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straβe 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Oana Cojocaru-Mirédin
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Otto-Blumenthal-Straβe, 52074 Aachen, Germany Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straβe 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Christina Scheu
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straβe 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
Dierk Raabe
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung GmbH, Max-Planck-Straβe 1, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. stoffers@mpie.de
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Abstract

In the course of a thorough investigation of the performance-structure-chemistry interdependency at silicon grain boundaries, we successfully developed a method to systematically correlate aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. The correlative approach is conducted on individual APT and TEM specimens, with the option to perform both investigations on the same specimen in the future. In the present case of a Σ9 grain boundary, joint mapping of the atomistic details of the grain boundary topology, in conjunction with chemical decoration, enables a deeper understanding of the segregation of impurities observed at such grain boundaries.

Type
New Approaches and Correlative Microscopy
Copyright
© Microscopy Society of America 2017 

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