Matlab Atom Probe Toolbox ranging definitions

Matlab figures are not necessarily directly parsable using Python tools. This is relevant for interoperability when using e.g. the Matlab Atom Probe Toolbox from Prof. Felfer's group at the FAU Erlangen. This toolbox stores results as content-rich Matlab figures and HDF5 files.

The ifes_apt_tc_data_modeling library >=0.2.1 offers a Matlab script matlab/matlab_fig_to_txt.m that users should run first to convert these figures into an intermediate text-based file with the extension fig.txt.

This text file has a simple structure: Each ranging definition is a single line with three parts separated by spaces: The first part is a human-readable description of the ion (element, isotope, molecular ion). We follow the naming convention of P. Felfer's atom-probe-toolbox. The second part is the left (minimum) bound while the third part is the right (maximum bound) bound of the mass-to-charge-state-ratio value interval of the ion that is specified in the first part. Details are available here

Once converted to fig.txt, pynxtools-apm uses the ifes_apt_tc_data_modeling library's fig parser to process the ranging definitions.

fig.txt	NeXus/HDF5
(Molecular ion) number of elements and their multiplicity
Mass-to-charge-state-ratio value interval for each molecular ion
Charge state