NeXus NXapm

Towards a global data model for atom probe research

Recently, coordinated efforts that have build on the collective knowledge of the atom probe community have resulted in the development of a covering data model for atom probe tomography and related field ion microscopy. This model uses the NeXus data modeling framework. The proposed data model NXapm captures all aspects of data acquisition and data analysis to arrive at calibrated reconstructed datasets with applied ranging definitions with transparent communication about peak fitting and analysis routines. The proposal has recently been proposed for standardization with the NeXus International Advisory Committee (NIAC). The proposal was successful. In effect, NXapm is an official part of the NeXus standard. This is the respective pull request. This is the latest release of the standard.

The activities have been acknowledged by key members of the atom probe community thus qualifying as suggested to be used global reporting standard for atom probe.

With pynxtools-apm a reference implementation exists, that maps file formats in atom probe on NeXus/HDF5 files that follow the NXapm application definition. CamecaROOT-based file formats are currently not mapped. With pynxtools also a stand-alone software is available to validate these NeXus/HDF5 files against the NXapm standard.