Quantitative STEM Imaging of Order-Disorder Phenomena in Double Perovskite Thin Films

B D Esser; A J Hauser; R E A Williams; L J Allen; P M Woodward; F Y Yang; D W McComb

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.176101

Quantitative STEM Imaging of Order-Disorder Phenomena in Double Perovskite Thin Films

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Oct 21;117(17):176101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.176101. Epub 2016 Oct 20.

Authors

B D Esser¹, A J Hauser², R E A Williams¹, L J Allen³, P M Woodward⁴, F Y Yang², D W McComb¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
² Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.
³ School of Physics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA.

PMID: 27824443
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.176101

Abstract

Using aberration-corrected high-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM), we investigate ordering phenomena in epitaxial thin films of the double perovskite Sr_{2}CrReO_{6}. Experimental and simulated imaging and diffraction are used to identify antiphase domains in the films. Image simulation provides insight into the effects of atomic-scale ordering along the beam direction on HAADF-STEM intensity. We show that probe channeling results in ±20% variation in intensity for a given composition, allowing 3D ordering information to be probed using quantitative STEM.