Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-sjtt6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-24T19:42:39.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Direct Imaging of the Atomic Structure and Chemistry of Defects and Interfaces by Z-Contrast Stem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

S. J. Pennycook ,
M. F. Chisholm ,
D. E. Jesson ,
D. P. Norton ,
J. W. Mccamy  and
D. H. Lowndes
S. J. Pennycook
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6024
M. F. Chisholm
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6024
D. E. Jesson
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6024
D. P. Norton
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6024
J. W. Mccamy
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6024
D. H. Lowndes
Affiliation:
Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P. O. Box 2008, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6024
Get access

Abstract

Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is a fundamentally new approach to high-resolution imaging which provides unambiguous, compositionally sensitive images on the atomic scale. Such images are intuitively interpretable, even in thick regions of the sample, tremendously simplifying determination of the structure and chemistry of defects and interfaces. To illustrate this, examples are presented of commonly observed planar defects in laser-ablated thin films of YBa2Cu3O7-x. Film/substrate interfaces are shown to be chemically diffuse on the atomic scale and steps or undulations in the substrate need not result in defects in the film. Low-angle grain boundaries are found to be chemically clean, the drastic reductions in critical currents with tilt angle being due to the array of intrinsic structural defects comprising the boundary.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 169: Symposium M – High Temperature Superconductors: Fundamental Properties and Novel Materials Processing , 1989 , 765
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Pennycook, S. J. and Boatner, L. A., Nature 336, 565 (1988).Google Scholar
2 Pennycook, S. J., EMSA Bull. 19, 67 (1989).Google Scholar
3 Pennycook, S. J., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 138, 329 (1989); also, Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 139, 39 (1989).Google Scholar
4 Pennycook, S. J., Jesson, D. E., and Chisholm, M. F., p. 51 in Microscopy of Semiconducting Materials 1989, ed. by Cullis, A. G. and Hutchison, J. L., (Inst. Phys. Conf. Ser. No. 100), The Institute of Physics, Bristol, 1989.Google Scholar
5 Pennycook, S. J. and Jesson, D. E., Phy.Rev. Lett. 64, 938 (1990).Google Scholar
6 Jesson, D. E., Pennycook, S. J., and Chisholm, M. F., in Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 159 (1990), in press.Google Scholar
7 Bourret, A., Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. 139, 3 (1989).Google Scholar
8 Scherzer, O. J., J. Appl. Phys. 20, 20 (1949).Google Scholar
9 Zandbergen, H. A., Gronsky, R., Wang, K., and Thomas, G., Nature 331, 596 (1988).Google Scholar
10 Zandbergen, H. W., Gronsky, R., and Thomas, G., Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 105, 207 (1988).Google Scholar
11 Marshall, A. F. et al. ., Phys. Rev. B 37, 9353 (1988).Google Scholar
12 Marsh, P. et al. . Nature 334, 141 (1988).Google Scholar
13 Pennycook, S. J., Ultramicroscopy 30, 58 (1989).Google Scholar
14 Lowndes, D. H. et al. ., these proceedings.Google Scholar
15 Norton, M. G., Tietz, L. A., Summerfelt, S. R., and Carter, C. B., Appl. Phys. Lett. 55, 2348 (1989); see also these proceedings.Google Scholar
16 Tietz, L. A. et al. . J. Mater. Res. 4, 1072 (1989).Google Scholar
17 Zandbergen, H. W. et al. ., Physica C 161, 390 (1989).Google Scholar
18 Dimos, D. et al. ., Phys. Rev. Lett. 61, 219 (1989).Google Scholar
19 Chisholm, M. F. and Smith, D. A., Philos. Mag. A 59, 181 (1989).Google Scholar
20 Chisholm, M. F. and Pennycook, S. J., p. 198 in Proc. 47th EMSA Meeting, ed. by Bailey, G. W., San Francisco Press, San Francisco, 1989, and in preparation.Google Scholar