3D reconstruction of antiphase boundaries in Cu3Au from field ion images

Field ion microscopy (FIM) was used to study the atomic level structure of the antiphase boundaries (APBs) in Cu3Au alloys. This technique allows a metallic sample volume to be investigated by using controlled evaporation of atomic layers. We used an emitter shape model from which the APBs can be reconstructed in three dimensions. The approach to the exact spatial arrangement of boundaries in the material volume allows the nature of planes of APBs to be determined. The results corroborate the observations from high resolution electron microscopy technique (HREM), which show that the APBs are mainly located in the cubic planes (001).