Time-of-flight atom-probe field ion microscope studies of surface-related phenomena

The time-of-flight atom-probe field ion microscope is both a single-atom detection sensitivity mass-to-charge ratio analyser and an ion energy analyser, provided that the instrument resolution is good enough. Its major applications are in material analysis. However, it has been used also for studying surface-related phenomena such as surface segregation of alloys, mechanisms of ion formation in field desorption, novel ion and cluster ion formation in laser-stimulated field ion emission, field dissociation of compound ions and its novel isotope effects and analysis of the site-specific binding energy of surface atoms, etc. Some of these studies are briefly reviewed here. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.