The crystal structure of the minor phase, named superstructure II, existing in multiferroic compound BiMnO3 has been studied by electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Domains of maj...The crystal structure of the minor phase, named superstructure II, existing in multiferroic compound BiMnO3 has been studied by electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Domains of major and minor phases coexisting in BiMnO3 were observed in high-resolution electron microscope images. The unit cell of minor phase was determined to be triclinic with the size 4×4×4 times as large as the distorted perovskite subcell. The [111] and [101] projected structure maps of the minor phase have been derived from the corresponding images by means of the image processing. A possible rough three-dimensional （3D） structure model was proposed based on the 3D structural information extracted from the two projected structure maps. Since there is no inversion centre in the proposed model, the minor phase may contribute to the ferroelectric property of BiMnO3.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No 50672124)Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China (Grant Nos 2005CB724402 and 2007CB925003)
文摘The crystal structure of the minor phase, named superstructure II, existing in multiferroic compound BiMnO3 has been studied by electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Domains of major and minor phases coexisting in BiMnO3 were observed in high-resolution electron microscope images. The unit cell of minor phase was determined to be triclinic with the size 4×4×4 times as large as the distorted perovskite subcell. The [111] and [101] projected structure maps of the minor phase have been derived from the corresponding images by means of the image processing. A possible rough three-dimensional （3D） structure model was proposed based on the 3D structural information extracted from the two projected structure maps. Since there is no inversion centre in the proposed model, the minor phase may contribute to the ferroelectric property of BiMnO3.
