Quantitative analysis of electron diffraction data from epitaxially grown crystals

Epitaxial growth produces oriented crystal projections where a long unit cell axis is parallel to the major crystal face rather than perpendicular to it and thus provides a favorable condition for electron diffraction data collection which minimizes perturbations due to elastic crystal bending. Even though the crystals are not so perfect as those produced by solution growth, the intensity data from them have been useful for the quantitative crystal structure analysis of several molecular organic compounds and linear polymers as discussed in this review.     

Characteristics of biogenic calcite in the prismatic layer of a pearl oyster,Pinctada fucata

The fine structure of the calcite prism in the outer layer of a pearl oyster, Pinctada fucata, has been investigated using various electron beam techniques, in order to understand its characteristics and growth mechanism including the role of intracrystalline organic substances. As the calcite prismatic layer grows thicker, sinuous boundaries develop to divide the prism into a number of domains. The crystal misorientation between the adjacent domains is several to more than ten degrees. The component of the misorientation is mainly the rotation about the c-axis. There is no continuous organic membrane at the boundaries. Furthermore, the crystal orientation inside the domains changes gradually, as indicated by the electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD) in a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) examination revealed that the domain consists of sub-grains of a few hundred nanometers divided by small-angle grain boundaries, which are probably the origin of the gradual change of the crystal orientation inside the domains. Spherular Fresnel contrasts were often observed at the small-angle grain boundaries, in defocused TEM images. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) indicated the spherules are organic macromolecules, suggesting that incorporation of organic macromolecules during the crystal growth forms the sub-grain structure of the calcite prism.     

A search for mechanoluminophors capable of pressure-induced thermal population of excited states

During the process of deforming a crystal, a high pressure is developed near the tip of mobile cracks, which may in turn produce a new ground state by thermal electron transfer. Upon sudden release of pressure, the electron can either relax to one atmosphere ground state or remain in the excited state potential well long enough to relax to one atmosphere and radiatively transfer back to the ground state. For analysing the pressure induced thermal population of the excited state, the mechanoluminescence(ML) and high pressure photoluminescence(PL) of several organic and inorganic crystals were measured. The study indicated that usual pressure coefficient of energy shift of the order of 50–100 cm⁻¹/kbar and the stress at the crack-tip of the order of 5–10 kbar, are not sufficient to cause the thermal population of the excited state. If by any means the product of pressure coefficient and stress at the mobile crack-tip can be increased by 50 to 100 times, then the thermal population of the excited states may take place. Using the pressure coefficient of energy shift and the difference in ML and PL spectra, and using independently the change in relative intensities of the vibronic peaks, the pressure at the emitting mechanoluminescent crystal sites is evaluated and it is found to be of the order of several kbar which varies from crystal to crystal.     

Epitaxial crystal growth of gadolinium on tungsten

Field electron microscopy is used to measure activation energies for multilayer diffusion of gadolinium over several different surfaces of tungsten and to prepare crystal layers of gadolinium by epitaxy on tungsten substrates. Nucleation, crystal growth and epitaxial relations are described.     

Current distribution in ESD diodes; Cross section corrections

The electron current distribution in diodes consisting of a rectangular crystal and an electron emitting filament parallel to and in front of it, used in several electron stimulated desorption (ESD) experiments has been determined by means of a dummy crystal constructed from uniformly transparent Lektromesh and a moveable, suitably constructed fine probe. It was found that for straight filaments the distribution was uniform along the narrow, but nearly triangular along the long dimension of the crystal. Calculated log signal versus time curves in ESD show considerable curvature, as often observed experimentally with such geometries. Filaments with a straight center, but coiled and shielded end sections provide uniform current distributions. When such filaments are used the curvature of the log signal versus time curves disappears for Kr desorption from W(110) but is still seen for oxygen desorption. The absolute fraction of filament current hitting the front surface of a crystal was also determined for various geometries by using a thin suppressor mesh in front of the dummy crystal. Cross sections for CO, O, and Kr ESD from W(110) were redetermined with a coiled end section filament. After correction for the fractions of current to the crystal and current non-uniformities previous results are in fairly reasonable agreement with the new values, except for the CO measurements of Leung, Vass, and Gomer, which are still high by a factor of 5. The new measurements permit a recalculation of excitation cross sections for neutral desorption. It is found that the latter are substantially smaller than corresponding gas phase values.     

E.S.R. study of the electron trapping centre in a single crystal of maleic acid irradiated at 77 K

Evidence for an electron trapping centre produced by ionizing radiations in a single crystal of maleic acid has been obtained by electron spin resonance. When the crystal is irradiated at 77 K several paramagnetic species are produced. One of them is the species in which the unpaired electron occupies the delocalized π orbital and interacts with the two vinylene protons. The hyperfine tensors of the two vinylene protons, which are typical of α proton coupling, are (-13·0, -8·5, -3·2) and (-6·4, -5·2, -1·9)G, respectively. The g tensor is (2·0043, 2·0040, 2·0024). The principal directions of the hyperfine and g tensors give information about the electron trapping centre in which the framework of the molecule is preserved. The probable structure of this centre is the delocalized carboxyl anion although the possibility of its protonated form cannot be completely excluded.     

Microstructure of high-pressure-synthesized diamonds under rapid quenching and electron irradiation

A type of synthetic diamond single crystal about 0.4–0.5 mm in dimension prepared under high pressure–high temperature (HPHT) in the presence of a FeNi molten catalyst was quenched from HPHT and irradiated with 300 keV electrons at room temperature. Transmission electron microscopy was employed to examine the microstructure of the diamond single crystal before and after electron irradiation. It was found that there exists a large amount of cellular interfaces in the quenched diamond sample, which indicates the growth condition of the diamond under HPHT. Hexagonal dislocation loops about several tens of nanometers in dimension were observed in the high-pressure-synthesized diamond single crystal before electron irradiation, which strongly suggests that a number of vacancies were quenched-in due to rapid quenching from high temperature at the end of diamond synthesis, and were aggregated in the synthetic diamond to form vacancy disks on the (111) plane, the collapse of such vacancy disks forming vacancy-type dislocation loops. After electron irradiation, it was found that defect clusters present as interstitial-character dislocation loops were formed in the electron-irradiated region of the diamond. The interstitial dislocation loops grow with increase of the irradiation time. The present study, in comparison to previous work on ion implantation on diamond, indicates that electron irradiation does not induce a phase transformation but produces interstitial dislocation loops due to the migration of interstitial atoms and vacancies. The result of the study directly indicates that interstitials and vacancies in diamond are mobile at room temperature under electron irradiation. Nitrogen, as the most important kind of impurity contained in the HPHT as-grown diamond, probably acts as nucleation of the interstitial loops. Received: 16 November 2001 / Accepted: 12 June 2002 / Published online: 17 December 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. E-mail: yinlw@sdu.edu.cn     

Work function measurements with a high resolution electron energy loss spectrometer: Application to the interaction of oxygen with Ag(110)

The monochromatized electron beam of a high resolution electron energy loss (HREEL) spectrometer is used for accurate (±5 meV) measurement of the work function changes during exposure of a Ag(110) single crystal surface to oxygen. Absolute calibration of the results is made by comparison with Kelvin probe data. The procedure allows the precise determination of the electron impact energy, which is an important parameter for quantitative HREELS analysis. Furthermore, in the case of oxygen adsorbed on Ag(110), the occurrence of several LEED (n×1) superstructures enables a calibration of the HREELS data with respect to surface coverage.     

Electron channeling,structure factor phases,polarity and atom site determination in crystals

We relate element characteristic electron energy losses and the accompanying X-ray emission under electron channeling conditions to the phases of structure factors. We discuss examples illustrating that structure factor phase information can be extracted from two-beam channeling experiments. This information has been used by several investigators to determine the absolute orientation of non-centrosymmetric crystals. We further discuss how the success of electron channeling in locating atoms in the crystal unit cell, ALCHEMI, is tied to phase information beyond the conventional one. From the perspective of diffraction-based crystallography, ALCHEMI provides information about the phase with which a particular element scatters into a reflection. Therein lies the strength of the ALCHEMI technique as compared to relying on diffraction intensities for the location of small concentrations of elements and neighbors in the periodic system.     

In-depth information from auger electron spectroscopy

In-depth information on impurity concentrations in the surface region of a solid can be obtained in a non-destructive way from Auger electron spectroscopy by varying the energy of the primary electrons. Examples are given for a silicon crystal covered by monolayers and multilayers of several types of impurity atoms.     

Electrical breakdown in solid dielectrics

The mechanism of electrical breakdown in solid dielectrics is analyzed using the results of our investigations performed in this direction over a period of several decades. It is shown that the electrical breakdown in solid dielectrics involves interrelated prebreakdown processes, such as high-voltage polarization, defect formation, electron impact excitation and electron impact ionization of luminescence centers and ions in the host crystal lattice, etc. The electrical breakdown is initiated by electric-field and thermal generation of defects in the crystal. In turn, the generation of defects leads to the formation of defect regions and channels that provide an assisted transfer of charge carriers. Electron currents flow (and electrons are accelerated by the electric field to energies sufficient to induce impact ionization) in these regions of the crystal with a lattice distorted by defects. In this respect, the known approaches to the elaboration of the breakdown theory for alkali halide and other dielectric crystals on the basis of analyzing the motion and acceleration of electrons in an ideal crystal structure have appeared to be incorrect.     

Growth of bicrystal CuO microsheets from aqueous solution

This Letter reports on a simple wet chemical approach to synthesize bicrystal cupric oxide (CuO) microsheets. The field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) show those microsheets typically present the uniform foldout-like shape. The portrait length of our products was in the range of 20–30 μm, and several micrometers of width. Electron diffraction studies implied that each CuO microsheet was a twin crystal.     

伽玛成像探测器空间分辨与相对发光效率

激光尾波场加速伽玛射线源有望成为新一代小型强伽玛射线源。这种射线源具有高能量、高亮度、小焦斑、超短脉冲输出等特点。利用Geant4蒙特卡罗软件包,计算了高能尾波场加速电子在高原子序数靶上的轫致辐射谱,同时在轫致辐射谱的范围内,计算了几种常用伽玛探测晶体相对发光效率和点扩展函数,分析了它们与晶体厚度、材料及入射伽玛能量之间的关系,为将来伽玛探测器的设计提供了理论参考。     

测定微小晶体结构的电子晶体学图像处理技术

介绍了2005年国家自然科学奖二等奖获奖项目“微小晶体结构测定的电子晶体学研究”.研究目的是建立一种借助高分辨电子显微像测定晶体结构的新方法.为此提出了高分辨电子显微学与衍射晶体学相结合的思想,在实现此思想的过程中,研究了像衬的规律,得出实用的像衬公式和理论,阐明了不同种类原子像衬与晶体厚度的关系,而且用理论指导实验,观察到晶体中锂原子的像衬.以此理论为依据,把衍射晶体学中的多种分析方法特包是直接法引入到高分辨电子显微学中,建立了一套全新的电子晶体学图像处理技术,开发了相应的可视化专用软件包,并应用于测定多个未知晶体结构.文中逐一介绍了研究工作全过程的关键问题和研究结果.     

Experimental evidence of the existence of a nonstationary coherent crystal state in bismuth

The excitation of a bismuth (Bi) crystal by intense ultrashort laser pulses at liquid-helium temperature leads to consistent motion of atoms and variations in the electron density. At various time instants over an interval reaching several dosen picoseconds, atoms in the Bi lattice exhibit sequential pairing in the real and reciprocal spaces. This behavior may correspond to the formation of a coherent crystal—a special state of matter that combines the properties of a solid and quantum fluid. Experimental data showing evidence of the possible existence of this unusual state are presented and analyzed.     

Theory of electric polarization in multiorbital Mott insulators

The interaction between the electric field E and spins in multiorbital Mott insulators is studied theoretically. We find a generic coupling mechanism, which works for all crystal lattices and which does not involve relativistic effects. It couples E to the "internal" electric field e originating from the dynamical Berry phase. We discuss several effects of this interaction: (i) an unusual electron spin resonance, (ii) the displacement of spin textures in an applied electric field, and (iii) the resonant absorption of circularly polarized light by Skyrmions, magnetic bubbles, and magnetic vortices.     

Estimation of crystal sample structure by means of fast electron radiation

The dependence of the characteristics of X-ray radiation occurring under fast electron transmission through a crystal on a sample structure has been analyzed. A method to estimate the size of the crystal microblocks by means of the yield ratio of the parametric X-ray radiation and diffracted bremsstrahlung and transition radiation for different observation angles has been suggested. The possibility of estimating the dimension of the microblocks using the ratio of the intensities of these emission mechanisms for the same observation angle and several reflection orders has been discussed.     

Study of the structure of zirconium single crystals under the β → α transformation

The metallographic, X-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy studies of the structure of iodide zirconium single crystal obtained by the floating-zone method are carried out. It is shown that a parent single crystal consists of macroscopic hcp-packets of six different versions governed by the Burgers orientation relationships. The microstructure of each of these regions is an ensemble of laths of the α phase of identical orientation, separated by small-angle dislocation boundaries. After quenching of zirconium pseudo-single crystal from the temperature of 960°C in a 10% NaCl solution, the packet structure of the α phase survives; however, the lath sizes decrease several times.     

Selective trap filling induced by electron pulse excitation during TSC measurement in PbI2

Thermally stimulated current (TSC) measurements have been performed on samples cut from a PbI₂ single crystal. After light excitation, several peaks have been observed in the range 77-320 K. It is demonstrated that excitation by means of a pulsed electron beam can be used to selectively fill either electron or hole traps. The results on PbI₂ confirm that most of the observed traps can be identified as hole traps.     

具有几个光振荡周期长度的飞秒激光脉冲在线性色散介质中的传输

给出了描写具有几个光振荡周期长度的飞秒激光脉冲在线性色散介质中传输方程的解。对脉冲的传输特性进行了数值摸拟 ,分别考察了来源于电子和晶格的正常和反常群速色散对脉冲展宽和脉冲形状畸变的影响。