R K Dash et al 2003 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 S2425 doi:10.1088/0953-8984/15/31/317
R K Dash1, P M Voyles2, J M Gibson3, M M J Treacy4 and P Keblinski1
Show affiliationsWe propose an extension to the technique of fluctuation electron microscopy that quantitatively measures a medium-range order correlation length in amorphous materials. In both simulated images from computer-generated paracrystalline amorphous silicon models and experimental images of amorphous silicon, we find that the spatial autocorrelation function of dark-field transmission electron micrographs of amorphous materials exhibits a simple exponential decay. The decay length measures a nanometre-scale structural correlation length in the sample, although it also depends on the microscope resolution. We also propose a new interpretation of the fluctuation microscopy image variance in terms of fluctuations in local atomic pair distribution functions.
61.43.Bn Structural modeling: serial-addition models, computer simulation
Issue 31 (13 August 2003)
Received 20 May 2003
Published 23 July 2003
R K Dash et al 2003 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 S2425
R Wehlitz and S B Whitfield 2001 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 34 L719
Masahide Gunji and Masao Washizu 2005 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 38 2417
Gregory V Morozov et al 2002 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 35 3052
Michael J W Hall 2004 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 37 7799
B J Powell 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 18 L575
J R Stewart et al 2004 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 16 L321
Yongfeng Yang et al 2005 Phys. Med. Biol. 50 2979
V Bezak 1992 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 25 6027
I M Benn and Jonathan Kress 1996 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 29 6295