Visualizing local fast ionic conduction pathways in nanocrystalline lanthanum manganite by isotope exchange-atom probe tomography - dataset

Raw data for atom probe tomography 2D elemental reconstructions of 18O-exchanged La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 thin films. LSM thin films were deposited by large-area PLD (PVD Systems – PLD 5000) using a 248 nm KrF excimer laser (Lambda Physics – COMPex PRO 205). The layers were deposited on Al2O3 (0001) single crystal substrate (Crystec GmbH). A thin barrier layer of Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 (SDC) was deposited before the LSM film in order to avoid cationic intermixing at the interface. Both layers were deposited at 700 °C, under an oxygen pressure of 2.6 × 10−2 mbar, target–substrate distance of 95 mm, laser fluency ≈1.2 J cm−2 and 5 Hz of laser frequency. The thickness of LSM and SDC layers deposited was ≈45 nm and ≈35 nm, respectively, as measured by spectroscopy ellipsometry (UVISEL, Horiba scientific).The nominal oxygen exchange temperature and time were 550 °C and 1 h and 40 min, respectively. Instrument Cameca LEAP 4000X Si. APT performed at 45.5 K using a 30 pJ laser energy and 500 kHz pulse rate. The flight path length was 90 mm and the ion detection rate was set to 5 ions per 1000 pulses, resulting in a bias range of 5000–7400 V during the data collection. Reconstructions were generated in Cameca's IVAS 3.6.18 software. A systematic energy deficit correction was employed to improve the mass spectral resolution.