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Experimental and Theoretical Characterisation of Structure in Thin Disordered Films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

D.G. McCulloch
Affiliation:
Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
D.R. McKenzie
Affiliation:
Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia. School of Physics, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
D.J.H. Cockayne
Affiliation:
Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
C.M. Goringe
Affiliation:
Key Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, University of Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia.
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Extract

The electron microscope provides an ideal environment for the structural analysis of small volumes of amorphous and polycrystalline materials by collecting scattering information as a function of energy loss and momentum transfer. The scattering intensity at zero energy loss can be readily processed to a reduced density function G(r), providing information on nearest neighbour distances and bond angles[l]. Figure 1(a) shows the G(r) for glassy carbon, a turbostratic form of graphite. The three nearest neighbours in glassy carbon (labelled 1-3 in figure 1) are at 1.42 Å, 2.44 Å and 3.75 Å respectively. These distances correspond to the first three nearest neighbours in a graphite sheet and are expected in glassy carbon which is know to have good in-plane graphitic order. In figure 1(b) the G(r) of cathodic arc deposited tetrahedral amorphous carbon is shown. This material contains a high fraction of diamond-like bonding[2] and has a 1st nearest neighbour peak at 1.52 Å.

Type
Nanophase and Amorphous Materials
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

[1] Cockayne, D.J.H., McKenzie, D.R. and Muller, D.A., Microsc. Microanal. Microstruct., 2, 359 (1991).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

[2] Berger, S.D., McKenzie, D.R. and Martin, P.J., Philos. Mag. Lett, 57, 285 (1988).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

[3] Car, R. and Parrinello, M., Phys. Rev. Lett., 55, 2471 (1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

[4] Marks, N.A., McKenzie, D.R., Pailthorpe, B.A., Bernasconi, M., and Parrinello, M., Phys. Rev. Lett, 76 768 (1996).CrossRefGoogle Scholar