  This article addresses gaps in definitions and a lack of standard measurement
techniques to assess the spatial resolution in atom probe tomography. This
resolution is known to be anisotropic, being better in the depth than
laterally. Generally the presence of atomic planes in the tomographic
reconstruction is considered as being a sufficient proof of the quality of the
spatial resolution of the instrument. Based on advanced spatial distribution
maps, an analysis methodology that interrogates the local neighborhood of the
atoms within the tomographic reconstruction, it is shown how both the in-depth
and the lateral resolution can be quantified. The influences of the
crystallography and the temperature are investigated, and models are proposed
to explain the observed results. We demonstrate that the absolute value of
resolution is specimenspecific.
