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

Publication date: Available online 9 March 2017 Source:Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials Author(s): Shunsuke Muto, Masahiro Ohtsuka 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 ...
Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research