N. D. Browning 1, E. M. James 1, K. Kishida 1, I. Arslan 1,
J. P. Buban 1,
J. A. Zaborac 1, S. J. Pennycook 2, Y. Xin 1,2 and G. Duscher 1,2*
1 Department of Physics (M/C 273), University of Illinois at Chicago,
845 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60607-7059. USA.
Tel: 312-413-8164, Fax: 312-996-9016, E-mail:
Browning@uic.edu
2 Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, P.O. Box 2008,
Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6030. USA.
* Current Address: Department of Physics and Astronomy,
Vanderbilt University,
Nashville, TN. USA.
Abstract
| Although internal interfaces have long been known to dominate the performance
of many materials systems critical to modern technology, there has yet been little
incontrovertible evidence pointing to the fundamental origin of the structure-property
relationships. However, the recent development of direct imaging and analysis techniques
in the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) has provided a new experimental
pathway to obtain information on the local atomic structure, chemical composition and
bonding at interfaces on the fundamental atomic scale. This is precisely the information
that is required to unravel the complexities of interfaces and opens up a new paradigm
for investigating the structure-property relationships at internal interfaces. In this
paper we discuss the practical aspects of the experimental STEM techniques and
demonstrate the resolution possible in current commercially available instrumentation.
The application of these techniques to the study of internal interfaces is highlighted by
a discussion of the analysis of homophase interfaces in SrTiO3, Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 and
YBa2Cu3O7-d and the heterophase interfaces between GaAs and Au, and between Si and
molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) grown II-VI semiconductors.
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full paper (pdf, 1720 Kb)