Misleading fringes in TEM images and diffraction patterns of Si nanocrystallites

High‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images and electron diffraction patterns of twinned Si nanocrystallites were recorded along various directions and analyzed in detail. We point out that special attention must be paid when interpreting HRTEM images and diffraction patterns of twinned Si nanocrystallites, because elongation of reciprocal lattice points could fabricate misleading fringes and patterns. (© 2003 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

TEM investigation of precipitates in VCz GaAs crystals

Bulk GaAs crystals were grown from various Ga‐rich melts by the vapour‐pressure controlled Czochralski method in order to reduce As precipitates. The correlation of the melt composition with both, structural perfection and solid composition was examined by various methods of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). From transmission electron diffraction and diffraction contrast imaging a direct correlation between melt composition and sample properties is missing. High‐resolution TEM imaging hints to inhomogeneities only for the sample grown from a melt with a mole fraction of y = 0.492. Strain analysis of a selected defect reveals a strained crystal lattice in the surrounding of the defect. For the same sample, high angle annular dark‐field imaging and energy dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy verify the formation of precipitates. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Crystal growth and defects in Ga3PO7 crystals

Crystals with a non‐centrosymmetric structure are of great interest owing to their properties such as ferroelectricity, piezoelectricity, dielectric behavior and optical properties. In this letter, Ga₃PO₇ crystals are grown by the top‐seeded solution growth (TSSG) method from a Li₂O‐3MoO₃ flux. It crystallizes in a non‐centrosymmetric trigonal crystal system with space group R3m within point group 3m. The growth defects are investigated by means of chemical etching method. The results reveal hot concentrated phosphoric acid to be a good etchant for Ga₃PO₇. The main defects are cracks, inclusions, dislocations and twin. In the meantime, the effective measures for reducing the defects are proposed. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Growth and characterization of thiourea mixed cadmium – lead chloride – a nonlinear optical crystal

Nonlinear optical (NLO) crystal of thiourea mixed cadmium–lead chloride dihydrate Cd[(PbCl₃)(NH₂CSNH₂)].2H₂O (TCCPC) have been grown in solution by slow evaporation technique at room temperature. The powder X‐ray diffraction pattern has been recorded and indexed. The UV‐Vis‐NIR transmittance and FT‐IR spectrum have been recorded in the range 200‐1090 nm and 400‐4000 cm^‐1, respectively. The lower cut‐off wavelength is 280 nm in the UV region, which is higher than that of pure Cd(PbCl₃) (CCPC) crystal. The presence of functional groups has been confirmed by FT‐IR analysis. The TCCPC crystal was characterized by SEM and EDX spectrum. The second harmonic generation (SHG) of the thiourea mixed cadmium–lead chloride (TCCPC) crystal is demonstrated by the Kurtz Perry method using Nd:YAG laser and the results confirm that the grown crystal is roughly three times more efficient than ADP. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Synthesis and characterization of inorganic‐organic ZnS(aminopropane)n composite materials

The main goal of our work was the synthesis and characterization of ZnS(aminopropane)_n hybrid inorganic‐organic layered materials. The basic material of our investigation was ZnS(1,3‐dap)_1/2, (where dap denotes diaminopropane). Its crystal structure has been solved by X‐ray powder diffraction methods. This layered compound was prepared using 1,3‐diaminepropane, zinc sulphate (ZnSO₄) and tioacetamide (CH₃CSNH₂). We have also tried to obtain and characterize other materials: ZnS(1‐ap) and ZnS(1,2‐dap), where ap denotes aminopropane. But in these last two cases diffraction patterns were of much poorer quality, which prevented a full structural survey; thus we cannot directly prove that hybrid lamellar materials were obtained. All compounds were studied using X‐ray diffraction, chemical analysis, UV‐vis spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Additionally, using X‐ray diffraction as a function of temperature, we obtained information about structural changes of obtained composite materials under temperature treatment. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Synthesis,growth and characterization of l‐alaninium oxalate ‐ a novel organic NLO crystal

Nonlinear optical material of L‐alaninium oxalate (LAO) has been synthesized and single crystals are grown by slow evaporation technique. The solubility data of LAO is determined in water. Single crystal X‐ray diffraction study showed that LAO belongs to orthorhombic system with a non‐centrosymmetric space‐group P2₁2₁2₁. The functional groups have been identified from FT‐IR spectrum. The UV‐Vis‐NIR spectrum of LAO shows less optical absorption in the entire visible region. The second harmonic generation (SHG) in the material was estimated using Nd:YAG laser. The mechanical properties of the grown crystals are studied using Vickers microhardness tester. The AC and DC conductivity, and dielectric studies are also carried out and reported for the first time. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

High-precision quantitative atomic-site-analysis of functional dopants in crystalline materials by electron-channelling-enhanced microanalysis

Knowledge of the location and concentration of impurity atoms doped into a synthesized material is of great interest to investigate the effect of doping. This would usually be investigated using X-ray or neutron diffraction methods in combination with Rietveld analysis. However, this technique requires a large-scale facility such as a synchrotron radiation source and nuclear reactor, and can sometimes fail to produce the desired results, depending on the constituent elements and the crystallographic conditions that are being analysed. Thus, it would be preferable to use an element-selective spectroscopy technique that is applicable to any combination of elements. We have established a quantitative method to deduce the occupation sites and their occupancies, as well as the site-dependent chemical states of the doped elements, using a combination of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS). The method is based on electron channelling phenomena where the symmetries of the Bloch waves excited in a crystal are dependent on the diffraction condition or incident beam direction with respect to the crystal axes. By rocking the incident electron beam with a fixed pivot point on the sample surface, a set of EDX/EELS spectra are obtained as a function of the beam direction. This is followed by a statistical treatment to extract the atom-site-dependent spectra, thereby quantitatively enabling the estimation of the site occupancies and chemical states of the dopants. This is an extension of the ‘ALCHEMI’ (Atom Location by Channelling Enhanced Microanalysis) method or ‘HARECXS/HARECES’ (High Angular Resolution Channelled X-ray/Electron Spectroscopy), and we further extended the method to be applicable to cases where the crystal of interest contains multiple inequivalent atomic sites for a particular element, applying the precise spectral predictions based on electron elastic/inelastic dynamical scattering theory. After introduction of conceptual aspects of the method, we describe the extension of the method together with the development of the theoretical calculation method. We then demonstrate several useful applications of the method, including luminescent, ferrite, and battery materials. We discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the present method, compared with those of the recently developed atomic column-by-column analysis using aberration-corrected scanning TEM and high-efficiency X-ray detectors.     

Morphological alteration of anatase titania nanostructures depend on the amount of Na ion intercalation

Controllable preparation of different nanoscale‐shaped titania materials was realized by hydrothermal treatment of anatase TiO₂ in an alkaline solution. The gradually changing morphologies and microstructures of titanium dioxide were investigated by powder X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. And a top‐down path is illuminated to have an insight to the morphological evolution from nanoparticle to nanosheet by adjusting the concentrations of Na ion in the aqueous solution. The results of photocatalytic experiments indicated that the TiO₂ nanobelts exhibited enhanced photocatalytic performance, due to their lower electron‐hole recombination rate confirmed from the photoluminescence spectra. This study suggests that the photocatalysis efficiency of nanocrystals can be significantly improved by the shape‐dependent morphological transformation.     

Crystallographic shear defect in molybdenum oxides: Structure and TEM of molybdenum sub‐oxides Mo18O52 and Mo8O23

Molybdenum trioxide and molybdenum sub‐oxides are of great interests in catalysis due to their utilities as model system to elucidate the correlations between the structure and the catalytic performance. The suboxides are usually an intermediate phase during catalytic reaction in which the lattice oxygen is involved. We show the identification of the two common molybdenum sub‐oxides Mo₁₈O₅₂ and Mo₈O₂₃, derived from MoO₃ by crystallographic shearing (CS), by means of electron diffraction and High‐Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) in combination with image simulation. The coincidence of simulated electron diffraction patterns and high‐resolution images with the experimental ones indicates the feasibility of CS structure determination by these techniques.     

A Polymorph Crystal Structure of Hexaphenyl Observed in Thin Films

Highly oriented thin films of hexaphenyl — which are used in organic opto‐electronic applications — are characterised in terms of their crystal structures. Two different crystal structures of hexaphenyl (C₃₆H₂₆) are observed when the films are prepared by physical vapour deposition at various substrate temperatures. If the substrate is kept at room temperature, hexaphenyl crystallises within a structure which is already known from single crystal investigations. However, when the thin films are grown at a substrate temperature of 160°C a new crystalline phase appears. This structure was characterised by X‐ray and transmission electron diffraction. Due to the strong preferred orientation of the crystallites within the thin films, the lattice constants as well as main features of the new crystal structure could be determined. The lattice is indexed as monoclinic with: a = 7.98Å, b = 5.54Å, c = 27.64Å and β = 99.8°. The new crystal structure has high similarity to the already known crystal structure: Both structures are built by layers of hexaphenyl molecules, within one layer the aromatic planes of the hexaphenyl molecules are packed in a herringbone pattern. The characteristic feature of the new structure is that the long axes of the hexaphenyl molecules are arranged absolutely perpendicular to the layers, whereas, within the already known structure the long axes show an tilt angle of 17° to the layer normal direction.     

Structural Characterization of Y2Pd14B5

Y₂Pd₁₄B₅ is the major phase in as‐cast and annealed multiphase alloys with nominal compositions near YPd₅B₃C_0.3. Its crystal structure determined the first time here by single crystal X‐ray diffraction is body‐centered tetragonal (space group I4₁/amd). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals that in as‐cast specimens the tetragonal phase has a modulated structure and is oriented intergrown with a face‐centered cubic phase of similar composition, namely YPd₇B₂. According to Rietveld analyses of the multiphase system the structure of this phase can be well‐described by space group Fm m. Annealing the sample for 150 hrs at 973 K results in a coarsening and enrichment of the tetragonal phase as well as a disappearance of the modulations allowing a detailed structure analysis by single crystal diffractometry.     

电子背散衍射花样的数学特征

电子背散衍射(EBSD)花样揭示了材料的物相成分、晶体结构、晶粒取向、晶粒大小和晶界的信息。EBSD花样非常复杂,通常需要借助专门的计算软件才能解析。本文系统地研究了EBSD花样的数学特征,建立了任意晶体取向与EBSD花样之间的数理关系,推导了面心立方、体心立方和六方晶体的基本晶带轴的理论EBSD花样的数学特征,以及面心立方晶体的(001)<110>取向和(001)<100>取向的理论菊池(Kikuchi)花样特征。在实测EBSD花样的分析中与各晶系各点阵的基本晶带轴的理论EBSD花样特征比较,即通过图像特征对比,就可以直接确定实测EBSD花样所属的晶系、点阵和Kikuchi线交点对应的晶带轴[uvw],再由基本晶带轴的坐标计算出晶体取向,还能提供基本晶面信息,如原子密排晶面在样品中的空间分布,这有利于晶体的变形或生长机理研究。EBSD为单晶芯片质量检验提供了新方法。     

Growth,structural, thermal and optical studies on L‐glutamic acid hydrobromide – A new semiorganic NLO material

A new semiorganic crystal, L‐glutamic acid hydrobromide, C₅H₁₀NO₄Br (GHB) has been grown from aqueous solution. The single crystal X‐ray analysis of the crystal showed that it belongs to the non‐centrosymmetric P2₁2₁2₁ space group with protonated glutamic acid as cation and bromine as anion. The back‐bone conformations of the amino acid are in cis and trans form. The side‐chain conformations are observed to be in gauche I / trans / cis / trans forms. The characteristic ‘head‐to‐tail’ hydrogen bonding interaction is observed through a chain C(5) motif. Further, the crystal structure is stabilized by an intricate three‐dimensional hydrogen bonding network. TGA/DTA showed that the grown crystals are thermally stable upto 219 °C without any phase transition. The functional groups responsible for the various modes of vibrations were identified by using FTIR spectroscopy. UV‐Vis‐NIR spectra showed that the crystals have excellent transparency in the visible and infrared regions. The second harmonic generation (SHG) conversion efficiency was investigated to explore the NLO characteristics of the material. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The Nature of One-sided Intergrowths on (001) of Triclinic Centrosymmetric K2Cr2O7

Systematic composite crystal growth can arise when larger crystals of the same type exhibit oriented intergrowth. One example of this is potassium dichromate (P1 ) which SHUBNIKOV first described in 1912. In highly supersaturated solutions, a one-sided roughening of its crystals occurs on (001 ). Electron micrographs show that this is due to the growth of platelet-shaped crystals. Optical and X-ray methods as well as electron channeling and BACK-KIKUCHI diffraction patterns have shown that the growths are predominantly parallel intergrowths, about 10% of which are twins according to [010].     

Atomic Processes during Crystal Growth Studied by Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction

After a short retrospect on the development of the electron diffraction techniques it is shown that the atomic-scale morphology of the crystal surface and growth processes on it can be studied in detail during molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED). This is demonstrated for the evolution of the terrace-step-structure of the singular GaAs (001) surface during growth and after growth interruption and for the attachment of Si atoms at misorientation steps on vicinal GaAs (001) surfaces.     

Synthesis of ZnO nanorods by the thermal reduction process of a mixture of ZnO and Al powder

Single‐crystalline Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were firstly synthesized on gold‐coated Si substrate via a simple thermal reduction method from the mixture of ZnO and Al powder. The growth process was carried out in a quartz tube at different temperature (550‐700 °C) and at different oxygen partial pressure. Their structure properties were investigated by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The length of the as‐prepared ZnO nanorods was up to several micrometers and their diameters were about 130 nm. The X‐ray diffraction patterns, transmission electron microscopic images, and selective area electron diffraction patterns indicate that the one‐dimensional ZnO nanorods are a pure Single‐crystal and preferentially oriented in the [0001] direction. The reaction mechanism of ZnO nanorods was proposed on the basis of experimental data. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Systematic,properties, and structure predictions of new borate materials

New borates with the non‐linear optical properties, obtained and investigated in Moscow State University in the last years, are reviewed. The positions of compounds in systematic were determined including complicate cases using topology and symmetry analysis of anionic radicals with the separation of blocks, typical for borate groups. Such approach revealed structural correlations between borates and silicates and led to prediction of new structures, two of which are realized. The origin of properties is connected with the highly polarizable electron density on lone pair or asymmetric bonds, presented in the structures. Experimental observation electron density distrubution has been made for Pb‐hilgardite, a crystal with the high optical non‐linearity. Different approaches to the structure‐properties relation are discussed. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Effect of different solvents on the habit of meta‐nitroaniline single crystals

The habit of the organic non‐linear optical material meta‐nitroaniline (mNA) crystallized from different organic solvents such as acetone, benzene, ethyl acetate, n‐hexane, methanol and toluene were studied. Solubility of mNA in these solvents at various temperatures in the range between 288 and 323 K was determined by gravimetric method. Crystals were grown by restricted evaporation of solvents method. Solutions with different solvents having different chemical nature and polarity yielded crystals with different habits: one‐dimensional needles, two‐dimensional rhombic platelets and three‐dimensional octahedral. In addition, the mNA crystals show unidirectional growth behaviour along its polar [001] direction irrespective of the solvents used. All the grown crystals were found to be orthorhombic system with point group mm2 and space group Pbc2₁ which was confirmed by powder X‐ray diffraction study. Optical transmittance study showed that the grown mNA single crystals have optical transparency in the wavelength range between 430 and 1550 nm. SHG efficiency of the grown mNA crystal was 3 times grater than KDP. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A new method for the investigation of orientation relationships in meteoritic plessite

The orientation relationship (OR) between the bcc and fcc phase in the plessite microstructure of the iron meteorites Watson, Agpalilik and Gibeon has been analysed in a scanning electron microscope using electron back‐scattered diffraction (EBSD). A very strong OR exists, independently on the analysed plessite type and the observed spreading of single orientation data. The agreement between the experimental orientation distribution and existing models varies for each meteorite. The black plessite in the Agpalilik corresponds to the Nishiyama‐Wassermann model whereas the duplex plessite of the Gibeon meteorite shows an OR close to the Kurdjumov‐Sachs model. The Watson meteorite is strongly deformed so that a general OR is difficult to determine due to the blurred experimental orientation distribution. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)