[en] A careful phase analysis study of cubic perovskite-related phases in the ternary SrO-CuO-Nb₂O₅ system has been carried out via the synthesis and compositional analysis of a range of specimens within the ternary SrO-CuO-Nb₂O₅ system. Powder XRD in conjunction with electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) has been used to determine whether the synthesized specimens are single phase or not and to determine the compositions of the various reaction products. Three quite distinct such solid solution phases have been found and their quite distinct electrical and diffraction characteristics investigated

[en] The composition range and (composite modulated) structure of compounds within the wide range non-stoichiometric LaSb₂Sn_x, 0.1=< x=<0.75, solid solution is carefully investigated via a combined electron diffraction, XRD and electron probe microanalysis study. Evidence for metastability of the LaSb₂Sn_x phase at the low x composition end of the solid solution is presented. Direct evidence is found for a reasonably (although by no means perfectly) well ordered Sn sub-structure which is, in general, mutually incommensurable with respect to a very well ordered underlying LaSb₂ sub-structure along both a and c directions. The overall (3+2)-d superspace group symmetry is given along with a discussion of the consequences as regards the arrangement of the Sn atoms. The Sn sub-structure c-axis cell dimension shows very little variation with composition x providing direct experimental evidence of the importance of Sn-Sn metallic bonding (along one-dimensional [001] Sn strings) for the stability of the phase

[en] The binary pnictide 'SnSb' has been re-investigated using a combination of X-ray, synchrotron and electron diffraction as well as electron microprobe analysis. Its structure was found to be incommensurately modulated with an underlying rhombohedral parent structure of space group symmetry R3-bar m (No. 166), unit cell parameters a_h=b_h=4.3251(4)A, c_h=5.3376(6)A in the hexagonal setting. The incommensurate primary modulation wave vector q_h=1.3109(9)c_h^* and the superspace group symmetry is R3-bar m (0, 0, ∼1.311) (No. 166.1). The refinement of the incommensurate structure indicates that the satellite reflections arise from displacive shifts of presumably essentially pure Sn and Sb layers along the hexagonal c-axis, with increasing distance between the Sn-layers and decreasing distance between the Sb layers

[en] The n=3 member of the Nb_nO_2n-1F_n+2 family of oxyfluoride compounds has been carefully investigated by electron diffraction. This compound was previously believed to have a random distribution of oxygen and fluorine ions at each of the anion sites. Electron diffraction experiments have revealed the presence of strong planar diffuse scattering perpendicular to the a and b directions at the G+/-[qkl]* and G+/-[hql]* regions of reciprocal space, where G represents a Bragg reflection of the I4/mmm average structure, h and k are continuous variables and q=0.39+/-0.08. The continuous planes of diffuse intensity imply the existence of strings of ordered oxygen and fluorine atoms for equatorial anion sites along [100] and [010] albeit without correlation from one such string to the next. A bond valence sum argument has been used to derive a plausible site occupation model for the remaining apical and median anion sites

[en] A combined synthesis, diffraction and dielectric properties investigation of the dependence (and effect) of Mn²⁺/Nb⁵⁺ ordering in Ba₃MnNb₂O₉ (BMN) upon annealing atmosphere and processing conditions has been carried out. Annealing in different atmospheres was not found to significantly alter either nominal stoichiometry or structure type. The obtained structure type (disordered metrically cubic or ordered trigonal) as well as the measured electrical properties (in particular, the dielectric loss) were, however, found to be sensitive to the synthesis route. Samples obtained via solid-state reaction were found to be predominantly of 1:2 Mn²⁺/Nb⁵⁺ ordered, P3-bar m1 trigonal structure type whereas samples obtained via an aqueous solution route were found to be of a Mn²⁺/Nb⁵⁺ 'disordered', metrically cubic structure type. All solid-state synthesized samples showed reasonable dielectric properties. The microwave dielectric constant and dielectric quality factor, Q, at 8GHz of an as-synthesized BMN sample were 38 and 100, respectively. By contrast, the dielectric loss of the metrically cubic, Mn²⁺/Nb⁵⁺ 'disordered' samples obtained via an aqueous solution synthesis process were significantly worse