Reflections on the projection of ions in atom probe tomography

Abstract: There are two main projections used to transform, and reconstruct, field ion micrographs or atom probe tomography data into atomic coordinates at the specimen surface and, subsequently, in three-dimensions. In this article, we present a perspective on the strength of the azimuthal equidistant projection in comparison to the more widely used and well-established point-projection(or pseudo-stereographic projection), which underpins data reconstruction in most software packages currently in use across the community. After an overview of the reconstruction methodology, we demonstrate that the azimuthal equidistant is more robust with regards to errors on the parameters used to perform the reconstruction and is therefore more likely to yield more accurate tomographic reconstructions.