Search results for "Electron diffraction"
showing 10 items of 191 documents
Automated electron diffraction tomography - a new tool for nano crystal structure analysis
2011
Automated electron Diffraction Tomography (ADT) comprises an upcoming method for “ab intio” structure analysis of nano crystals. ADT allows fine sampling of the reciprocal space by sequential collection of electron diffraction patterns while tilting a nano crystal in fixed tilt steps around an arbitrary axis. Electron diffraction is collected in nano diffraction mode (NED) with a semi-parallel beam with a diameter down to 50 nm. For crystal tracking micro-probe STEM imaging is used. Full automation of the acquisition procedure allowed optimisation of the electron dose distribution and therefore analysis of highly beam sensitive samples. Cell parameters, space group and reflection intensitie…
Elucidating structural order and disorder phenomena in mullite-type Al4B2O9 by automated electron diffraction tomography
2017
The crystal structure and disorder phenomena of Al4B2O9, an aluminum borate from the mullite-type family, were studied using automated diffraction tomography (ADT), a recently established method for collection and analysis of electron diffraction data. Al4B2O9, prepared by sol-gel approach, crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/m. The ab initio structure determination based on three-dimensional electron diffraction data from single ordered crystals reveals that edge-connected AlO6 octahedra expanding along the b axis constitute the backbone. The ordered structure (A) was confirmed by TEM and HAADF-STEM images. Furthermore, disordered crystals with diffuse scattering along the b axis…
Towards automated diffraction tomography: Part I—Data acquisition
2007
Abstract The ultimate aim of electron diffraction data collection for structure analysis is to sample the reciprocal space as accurately as possible to obtain a high-quality data set for crystal structure determination. Besides a more precise lattice parameter determination, fine sampling is expected to deliver superior data on reflection intensities, which is crucial for subsequent structure analysis. Traditionally, three-dimensional (3D) diffraction data are collected by manually tilting a crystal around a selected crystallographic axis and recording a set of diffraction patterns (a tilt series) at various crystallographic zones. In a second step, diffraction data from these zones are com…
Ab Initio Structure Determination of Vaterite by Automated Electron Diffraction
2012
tion that is fundamental for understanding material properties. Still, a number of compounds have eluded such kinds of analysis because they are nanocrystalline, highly disordered, with strong pseudosymmetries or available only in small amounts in polyphasic or polymorphic systems. These materials are crystallographically intractable with conventional Xray or synchrotron radiation diffraction techniques. Single nanoparticles can be visualized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) up to sub�ngstrom resolution, [2] but obtaining 3D information is still a difficult task, especially for highly beam-sensitive materials and crystal structures with long cell parameters. Elec…
Preparation of superconducting thin films of UNiAl
2005
Abstract Epitaxial thin films of the unconventional heavy fermion superconductor UNi 2 Al 3 we prepared by coevaporation of the elementary components in a molecular beam epitaxy system (MBE). The phase purity and structural quality of the films deposited on (0 1 0)- or (1 1 2)-oriented YAlO 3 substrates were studied by X-ray diffraction and RHEED. The observed R ( T ) behavior is consistent with data obtained from bulk samples and proves the purity of the films. Superconductivity was found with transition temperature T c =0.97 K.
Structure solution of zeolites by automated electron diffraction tomography - Impact and treatment of preferential orientation
2014
Abstract In this paper the reliability of structure solution of nano-crystalline porous compounds with preferred orientation based on automated electron diffraction tomography (ADT) is discussed. It will be shown that the limitations of the data acquisition geometry can be overcome by completing the missing diffraction data with additional diffraction information. Apart from different ways of sample preparation, data merging with either additional ADT data sets or intensities derived from X-ray powder diffraction comprise an effective way to improve the accuracy of the structure solution.
Applications of automated diffraction tomography (ADT) on nanocrystalline porous materials
2013
Abstract Many porous materials, both inorganic and hybrid organic–inorganic, can only be synthesized as nanocrystals. X-ray powder diffraction delivers one-dimensional data from the overall sample and is therefore often limited by peak overlap at low or medium resolution and by peak broadening. Thus, structure solution of materials with large unit cells and low symmetry, disorder or pseudosymmetry, or available only in polyphasic systems, turns out to be problematic or even impossible. Electron diffraction allows collecting three-dimensional structure information from nanocrystalline materials, but is traditionally biased by low completeness of the diffraction data, dynamical scattering and…
Application of delta recycling to electron automated diffraction tomography data from inorganic crystalline nanovolumes
2013
δ Recycling is a simple procedure for directly extracting phase information from Patterson-type functions [Rius (2012). Acta Cryst. A68, 399-400]. This new phasing method has a clear theoretical basis and was developed with ideal single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. On the other hand, introduction of the automated diffraction tomography (ADT) technique has represented a significant advance in electron diffraction data collection [Kolb et al. (2007). Ultramicroscopy, 107, 507-513]. When combined with precession electron diffraction, it delivers quasi-kinematical intensity data even for complex inorganic compounds, so that single-crystal diffraction data of nanometric volumes are now availa…
An Analysis of the Broadening Induced by Beam Damage in Transmission Electron Diffraction Spots from an Oriented Aliphatic Monolayer
1991
We have analysed the progressive changes in diffraction spot shape during prolonged transmission electron diffraction observation of a soap monolayer supported on a thin polymer film. The material used to form the monolayer was cadmium eicosanoate (arachidate). The observed changes cannot be explained at all in terms of the chemical crosslinking which is known to occur as a result of beam damage, nor completely in terms of the strain fields caused by unbound dislocation defects of the crystalline lattice. The most plausible explanation involves the formation of linear dislocation aggregates which resemble grain boundaries but yet which are not linked into a continuous network. The evolution…
II–VI and II1−xMnxVI semiconductor nanocrystals formed by the pressure cycle method
2005
II–VI and II1−x Mn x VI nanocrystals were prepared by the pressure cycle method using the Paris–Edinburgh cell. The recovered samples are nanocrystals in the cubic phase zinc-blend (ZB) structure and were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, electron diffraction, X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering. Transmission electron micrographs show that these nanocrystals are nearly spherical with diameters ranging from 20 to 50 nm depending on the sample under investigation. The Raman scattering measurements confirm the existence of II–VI nanocrystals in the cubic phase (ZB). The magnetic properties of Cd0.5Mn0.5Te nanoparticles were found to vary with the particle size and were d…