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Title: In situ transmission electron microscopy observation of ZnO polar and non-polar surfaces structure evolution under electron beam irradiation
NSF-PAR ID:
10053074
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
American Institute of Physics
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Journal of Applied Physics
Volume:
119
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0021-8979
Page Range / eLocation ID:
015305
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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  1. Abstract

    Measuring local polar ordering is key to understanding ferroelectricity in thin films, especially for systems with small domains or significant disorder. Scanning nanobeam electron diffraction (NBED) provides an effective local probe of lattice parameters, local fields, polarization directions, and charge densities, which can be analyzed using a relatively low beam dose over large fields of view. However, quantitatively extracting the magnitudes and directions of polarization vectors from NBED remains challenging. Here, we use a cepstral approach, similar to a pair distribution function, to determine local polar displacements that drive ferroelectricity from NBED patterns. Because polar distortions generate asymmetry in the diffraction pattern intensity, we can efficiently recover the underlying displacements from the imaginary part of the cepstrum transform. We investigate the limits of this technique using analytical and simulated data and give experimental examples, achieving the order of 1.1 pm precision and mapping of polar displacements with nanometer resolution.

     
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