Applicability study of the structure-factor phase method for determining the polarity of binary semiconductors.

The structure-factor phase method of convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) has been widely applied as an effective tool in determining the polarity of binary compound materials, for example, the typical sphalerite material, GaAs. However, its validity on other polar materials is still unknown. In this paper we extensively investigated its potential applicability onto 11 AB-type semiconductors by dynamical simulations of CBED. Two key factors during the simulation, the difference between A and B atomic numbers and the sample thickness, are discussed in detail. It was found that this method is efficient to determine the polarity for a sphalerite structure under certain conditions, and, reversely, limited to determine the polarity for a wurtzite structure even though it is very similar to the sphalerite structure.

Experimental study of lattice distortion in ellipsoid-like nano-crystallites of copper.

The elastic state of embedded inclusions is of considerable importance to the properties of materials. The non-uniform lattice distortion in the inclusions in which the interfaces are shaped with variable curvature cannot be measured by usual experimental methods. In this paper, the lattice distortions in an ellipsoid-like nano-crystallite of copper were measured by means of the peak finding method in the central part of the HRTEM image. The effects of contrast delocalization are studied by HRTEM image simulations, which show that the measured spacings of peaks in the middle part of the crystallite can be considered approximately equal to the true spacings of columns. With the HRTEM method, our measured results show that the nano-crystallite is expanded in the short axis direction and compressed in the long axis direction. The results calculated with the elasticity theory incorporating interface tension consist with the experimental results of HRTEM.

A novel synthesis route of Ag2S nanotubes by sulfidizing silver nanowires in ambient atmosphere.

In this study, a 'two-step' strategy of synthesizing nanoparticles-assembled Ag,S nanotubes with a diameter of less than 100 nm is developed. At first, the silver nanowires with uniform length and diameter were synthesized by polyol reduction method using PVP as a capping agent. Then, the resulting silver nanowires were exposed to the ambient atmosphere of laboratory, gradually sulfidized by sulfur-containing molecules in air, and eventually transformed into nanoparticles-assembled Ag2S nanotubes. The morphologic changes during the sulfidation process from Ag nanowires to Ag2S nanotubes were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is revealed that Ag2S nanoparticles are initially formed on the surface of Ag nanowire by sulfidation, and subsequently linked together into Ag,S nanotube. Quantitative analyses of energy dispersive X-ray spectra (EDS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) show that the as-synthesized products are monoclinic alpha-Ag2S nanotubes. In addition, there is strong evidence that the polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) plays an important role as a soft template in the formation of Ag2S nanotubes. A new absorption peak at 573 nm appears in the optical absorption spectra when the Ag2S nanotubes are formed.

Structural transition, electrical and magnetic properties of the B-site Co doped Sr(14)Cu(24)O(41) compounds.

The effect of Co substitution for Cu on the structure and physical properties of Sr(14)(Cu(1-x)Co(x))(24)O(41) compounds was studied by analyzing the selected-area electron diffraction and convergent-beam electron diffraction patterns, and by measuring the magnetic susceptibility, the electrical resistivity and Raman spectra. It is found that the space group of the CuO(2) chain is changed from Amma to Ammm upon Co doping, but the structure of the Cu(2)O(3) ladder remains unchanged. This indicates that the displacement between two neighboring CuO(2) chains has disappeared due to Co doping. Once a small amount of Co ions are doped into the compound, exceptional changes in the Weiss temperature and in the number of dimers occur. The remarkable increase in the absolute value of the Weiss temperature indicates that the antiferromagnetic interaction in CuO(2) chains becomes very strong due to Co doping. The increase in the Curie coefficient and the number of dimers implies that the Co doping causes Zhang-Rice singlets in the chains to be decoupled into free spins Cu(2+) and holes. Then, the free spins Cu(2+) are coupled into dimers, and the holes transfer from chains to ladders, which causes the resistivity to decrease when the Co dopant concentration is low (x<0.10). When the Co dopant concentration is high (x>0.10), some Co ions are directly substituted for the Cu ions in the ladders, which results in an increase in resistivity with increasing Co dopant content.

Charge density determination in icosahedral AlPdMn quasicrystal using quantitative convergent beam electron diffraction.

Charge density distribution in icosahedral AlPdMn quasicrystal has been studied on a single-crystal specimen by using quantitative convergent beam electron diffraction (QCBED) technique. The QCBED systematic row method was used in the refinement of structure factors. To refine the low-order structure factors, the wave-mechanical formulation of electron diffraction dynamical theory was used in the calculation of electron diffraction intensities for the quasicrystal in fitting the experimental intensity line scan profiles. The shapes of atomic surfaces (occupation domains) were described with symmetry-adapted series of surface harmonics. An iterative procedure was used in determination of structure factors of the quasicrystal. The structure factors of nine strongest symmetry inequivalent reflections according to X-ray diffraction experiment were refined with QCBED technique. The average of refinement results for a given reflection performed on several CBED patterns, which were slightly different in orientation and sample thickness, and on different line scans, was taken as the value of structure factor for the reflection. The obtained structure factors for electrons were transformed into X-ray structure factors with Mott formula. The bonding charge density map for the quasicrystal was constructed with the obtained nine structure factors. Assuming that the atoms are spheres, the gain or loss of electrons for different atoms were calculated. It shows that identical atoms can have different valences at different kinds of positions. The bonding charge is localized along certain directions.

Elastic constants of Si crystal determined by thermal diffuse electron scattering.

The method of determining elastic constants of crystals by measuring thermal diffuse X-ray scattering around some Bragg reflections, is extended to measuring thermal diffuse electron scattering for the first time, in a transmission electron microscope, equipped with a field-emission gun, an [Formula: see text] -type energy filter and a multi-scan charge-coupled device. Quantitative diffuse electron scattering in the vicinity of the [Formula: see text] Bragg reflection was measured on a Si crystal in order to obtain information about elastic constants. Values of the elastic constants ratios C(12)/C(11)=0.4246, C(44)/C(11)=0.4707 obtained by simplex fitting method are consistent with the values C(12)/C(11)=0.3856, C(44)/C(11)=0.4804 determined by other traditional methods. This method may be expected to open a new route to measuring elastic constants of polycrystalline, nanometer-scaled and composite materials.