Detection efficiency in atom-probe time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Abstract
A method is presented of determining the absolute detection efficiency of an atom-probe time-of-flight spectrometer. Using this procedure, the volume method, one can avoid the sensitivity to the probe hole position which is an inescapable problem with the previously used method of counting the number of detected atoms per evaporated atomic layer. The detection efficiency of the atom-probe instrument used in the present investigation was found to be 57+or-9%.