On the Determination of Partial RDFs for Amorphous Materials

1993 ◽  
Vol 321 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. C. Qin ◽  
L. W. Hobbs

ABSTRACTRadial distribution functions (RDFs) for vitreous silica (V-SiO2) have been obtained from energy-filtered electron diffraction data obtained in the HB5 scanning transmission electron Microscope. Results have been compared with those obtained from high-resolution neutron diffraction experiments, and are in good agreement within experimental errors. It was found to be impractical to obtain partial RDFs for this material from combined neutron, X-ray and electron diffraction data, because the similarities in characteristics of X-ray and electron scattering cause indeter-Minacies. A criterion equation has been given to determine feasibility.

Author(s):  
A. N. Sreeram ◽  
L.-C. Qin ◽  
A. J. Garratt-Reed ◽  
L. W. Hobbs

There is significant current interest in understanding the structure of aperiodic solids, such as originally crystalline material amorphized by ion implantation, impact or application of massive pressures, or deposited amorphous thin films, which occupy small volumes. Radially-averaged real-space distribution functions can be derived from diffraction data, the best of which come from thermal neutron diffraction, which inconveniently requires large volumes. Neutron data are collectable in reciprocal space out to q ≡ 2sin(Θ/2)/λ = 70 nm-1, where Θ is the scattering angle and λ the wavelength, or about twice as far as for X-rays, which also require large diffracting volumes. Electron diffraction is the only recourse for very small volumes because of the much stronger interaction of the electron, but spectra must be energy filtered to remove the large inelastic scattering component. Recently, it has been shown that useful electron diffraction data can be collected conveniently to at least q = 16 nm-1 in the VG HB5 dedicated 100-kV field-emission STEM. This contribution details our experiences with improved collection in the VG HB603 instrument operating at 250 kV.


2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 304-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dung Trung Tran ◽  
Gunnar Svensson ◽  
Cheuk-Wai Tai

SUePDFis a graphical user interface program written in MATLAB to achieve quantitative pair distribution functions (PDFs) from electron diffraction data. The program facilitates structural studies of amorphous materials and small nanoparticles using electron diffraction data from transmission electron microscopes. It is based on the physics of electron scattering as well as the total scattering methodology. A method of background modeling is introduced to treat the intensity tail of the direct beam, inelastic scattering and incoherent multiple scattering. Kinematical electron scattering intensity is scaled using the electron scattering factors. The PDFs obtained after Fourier transforms are normalized with respect to number density, nanoparticle form factor and the non-negativity of probability density.SUePDFis distributed as free software for academic users.


2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 459-468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jürgen Ankele ◽  
Joachim Mayer ◽  
Peter Lamparter ◽  
Siegfried Steeb

A method has been developed to obtain quantitative electron diffraction data up to a value of Q = 20 Å−1 of the modulus of the scattering vector. The experiments were performed on a commercially available transmission electron microscope equipped with a so-called omega energy filter. An analytical multiple scattering correction was applied. The electron diffraction results obtained with amorphous germanium were compared with X-ray and neutron diffraction data and showed good agreement. For an amorphous Ni63Nb37 sample it was shown that it is possible to estimate the multiple scattering intensity without exact knowledge of the sample thickness. This technique was applied to derive the structure factor for electron diffraction of two precursor-derived amorphous Si-C-N ceramics (a-Si24C43N33 and a-Si40C24N36). The results are consistent with corresponding X-ray diffraction data and with an existing structural model for such ceramics.


1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 284-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. T. Ivanov ◽  
D. D. Nihtianova ◽  
I. Georgieva

A new phase in the system BaO–MnO–SiO2 obtained by a pyrosynthetic method has been inves- tigated using electron microprobe analysis (EPMA), X-ray powder diffraction (PDA), and trans- mission electron diffraction. The lattice parameters and possible space group of the phase with a general composition BaMnSi2O6 were determined as follows: a=13.896, b=12.261, c=10.781 Å, β=103.47°, space group P21/m, Z=12.


Author(s):  
J. R. Michael ◽  
K. A. Taylor

Although copper is considered an incidental or trace element in many commercial steels, some grades contain up to 1-2 wt.% Cu for precipitation strengthening. Previous electron microscopy and atom-probe/field-ion microscopy (AP/FIM) studies indicate that the precipitation of copper from ferrite proceeds with the formation of Cu-rich bcc zones and the subsequent transformation of these zones to fcc copper particles. However, the similarity between the atomic scattering amplitudes for iron and copper and the small misfit between between Cu-rich particles and the ferrite matrix preclude the detection of small (<5 nm) Cu-rich particles by conventional transmission electron microscopy; such particles have been imaged directly only by FIM. Here results are presented whereby the Cu Kα x-ray signal was used in a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) to image small Cu-rich particles in a steel. The capability to detect these small particles is expected to be helpful in understanding the behavior of copper in steels during thermomechanical processing and heat treatment.


Author(s):  
M. Tamizifar ◽  
G. Cliff ◽  
R.W. Devenish ◽  
G.W. Lorimer

Small additions of copper, <1 wt%, have a pronounced effect on the ageing response of Al-Mg-Si alloys. The object of the present investigation was to study the effect of additions of copper up to 0.5 wt% on the ageing response of a series of Al-Mg-Si alloys and to use high resolution analytical electron microscopy to determine the composition of the age hardening precipitates.The composition of the alloys investigated is given in Table 1. The alloys were heat treated in an argon atmosphere for 30m, water quenched and immediately aged either at 180°C for 15 h or given a duplex treatment of 180°C for 15 h followed by 350°C for 2 h2. The double-ageing treatment was similar to that carried out by Dumolt et al. Analyses of the precipitation were carried out with a HB 501 Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope. X-ray peak integrals were converted into weight fractions using the ratio technique of Cliff and Lorimer.


Author(s):  
John B. Vander Sande ◽  
Thomas F. Kelly ◽  
Douglas Imeson

In the scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) a fine probe of electrons is scanned across the thin specimen, or the probe is stationarily placed on a volume of interest, and various products of the electron-specimen interaction are then collected and used for image formation or microanalysis. The microanalysis modes usually employed in STEM include, but are not restricted to, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and microdiffraction.


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