Patent ID: 8247766

Claim:
A tomographic atom probe for analyzing a material specimen placed in an analysis chamber comprising means for generating light pulses suitable for producing a controlled evaporation, atomic layer by atomic layer, of a material specimen to be analyzed and means for guiding these pulses onto the specimen, wherein said means for generating said light pulses includes a wide spectral band laser pulse generating device comprising: a monochromatic laser light source whose intensity is adjustable; non-linear optical means for carrying out spectral widening of the wave emitted by the light source; the light source and the non-linear optical means being configured and arranged, as a function of the nature and of the shape of the analyzed specimen, so as to create a white supercontinuum whose continuous spectrum covers the set of wavelengths liable to cause for each wide band pulse a fast evaporation, by non-linear optical field effect, of the specimen throughout the analysis; the intensity of the light source being adjusted in such a way that the evaporation of the specimen by thermal effect in the course of the analysis is minimal.