PONE-D-21-33794Laser-equipped gas reaction chamber for probing environmentally sensitive materials at near atomic scalePLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Dear Authors:

Manuscript ID PONE-D-21-33794 entitled " Laser-equipped gas reaction chamber for probing environmentally sensitive materials at near atomic scale" which you submitted to the PLOS ONE, has been reviewed. The comments of the reviewer(s) are included at the bottom of this letter.

The reviewer(s) have recommended publication, but also suggest some revisions to your manuscript. Therefore, I invite you to respond to the reviewer(s)' comments and revise your manuscript.

Once again, thank you for submitting your manuscript to the Journal of the PLOS ONE and I look forward to receiving your revision.

Sincerely,

Prof. Jim P. Zheng

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: N/A

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: In this paper, a new thermochemical reaction chamber named the "Reacthub" is designed and established to study the effect of thermochemical treatments on materials in specific gaseous atmospheres, which also allows for transferring treated materials under cryogenic & ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) workflow conditions for characterisation by either atom probe or scanning Xe+/electron microscopes. This work would contribute to the quantitative atomic-scale characterizations of environmentally sensitive materials and their transient states. However, the topic addressed in this manuscript is not within the scope of PLOS ONE. Therefore, I personally do not recommend its publication in this journal of “PLOS ONE”.

Reviewer #2: The paper provides a description of the design and operation a reaction chamber for atom probe tomography. The authors then discuss a couple of case studies to demonstrate the efficacy of this instrumental design. The study is certainly an interesting evolution in the development of in-situ techniques that can be interfaced with atom probe tomography. A couple of items that might be included in the manuscript for those interested in reproducing the studies:

1. What was the effort needed to construct this custom made stage? For instance did the construction of the reaction stage involve much custom made machining ?

2. Does the laser / cryo combination enable one to control the rate of temperature change of the sample?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Submitted filename: comment-2021-11-11-PLOS ONE.docx

Laser-equipped gas reaction chamber for probing environmentally sensitive materials at near atomic scale

PONE-D-21-33794R1

Dear Dr. Stephenson,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Jim P. Zheng

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: