Atom Probe Tomography (APT) is the only material analysis technique offering extensive capabilities for both 3D imaging and chemical composition measurements at the atomic scale.
OCAS has access to a Cameca LEAP 5000 XR Atom Probe at the KU Leuven. A consortium of three Universities (Leuven, Hasselt and Gent), together with OCAS, set up this APT user facility with the Flemish Hercules foundation for large scale research infrastructure.
The APT infrastructure allows OCAS better understanding of concepts, leading to new product development of future generation steel grades. Typically, APT can be used to characterize nano-precipitation of intermetallic phases.
As APT is a unique tool that visualizes the nanoscale structure of a metal, it allows to understand in much more detail the metallurgical mechanisms that lead to corrosion protection, ductility and bendability improvement, temper and precipitation strengthening, toughness maximization, hydrogen trapping, etc.