Atom Probe Tomography (APT) Analysis of Minerals

The use of atom probe tomography (APT) in the analysis of minerals is becoming a powerful tool for geoscience applications. Most of the work has been focused on the study of isotropic minerals, mainly for geochronology and elucidating mineral formation under different temperature and pressure conditions. Thus, for the last ten years, we have been studying the different variables that control the quality of APT data for these minerals. The first part of the talk will be a summary of what we have learned so far about the influence of the crystallo-chemistry and physical properties of minerals (i.e., thermal conductivity) for the best outcomes of APT analyses. The second part will be centered around our most recent efforts in the analysis of layered, anisotropic minerals. We will be discussing challenges in sample preparation and 3D reconstructions of datasets, as well as potential applications of APT to the study of these ubiquitous minerals on Earth’s crust and other planets. Finally, we will be talking about new directions in the use of APT for the characterization of geomaterials.