TY - JOUR
T1 - Three-dimensional in situ imaging of single-grain growth in polycrystalline In2O3:Zr films
AU - Dzhigaev, Dmitry
AU - Smirnov, Yury
AU - Repecaud, Pierre Alexis
AU - Marçal, Lucas Atila Bernardes
AU - Fevola, Giovanni
AU - Sheyfer, Dina
AU - Jeangros, Quentin
AU - Cha, Wonsuk
AU - Harder, Ross
AU - Mikkelsen, Anders
AU - Wallentin, Jesper
AU - Morales-Masis, Monica
AU - Stuckelberger, Michael Elias
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (Grant Agreement 801847). This project also has the funding support from the Olle Engkvist Foundation and NanoLund. This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. Y.S., P.A.R., M.M.-.M acknowledge the support from the SOLAR ERA NET, project CUSTCO, number SOL18001. Q.J. aims to acknowledge the Swiss National Science Foundation (project Nachos: 200021L 172924). V. Tileli and R. Ignatans are gratefully acknowledged for providing access to the in situ heating TEM holder. The research leading to these results has received funding from Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY and we would like to thank Arno Jeromin from DESY NanoLab for performing EBSD measurements.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Strain and interactions at grain boundaries during solid-phase crystallization are known to play a significant role in the functional properties of polycrystalline materials. However, elucidating three-dimensional nanoscale grain morphology, kinetics, and strain under realistic conditions is challenging. Here, we image a single-grain growth during the amorphous-to-polycrystalline transition in technologically relevant transparent conductive oxide film of In2O3:Zr with in situ Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging and transmission electron microscopy. We find that the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov theory, which describes the average kinetics of polycrystalline films growth, can be applied to the single grains as well. The quantitative analysis stems directly from imaging results. We elucidate the interface-controlled nature of the single-grain growth in thin films and reveal the surface strains which may be a driving force for anisotropic crystallization rates. Our results bring in situ imaging with coherent X-rays towards understanding and controlling the crystallization processes of transparent conductive oxides and other polycrystalline materials at the nanoscale.
AB - Strain and interactions at grain boundaries during solid-phase crystallization are known to play a significant role in the functional properties of polycrystalline materials. However, elucidating three-dimensional nanoscale grain morphology, kinetics, and strain under realistic conditions is challenging. Here, we image a single-grain growth during the amorphous-to-polycrystalline transition in technologically relevant transparent conductive oxide film of In2O3:Zr with in situ Bragg coherent X-ray diffraction imaging and transmission electron microscopy. We find that the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami-Kolmogorov theory, which describes the average kinetics of polycrystalline films growth, can be applied to the single grains as well. The quantitative analysis stems directly from imaging results. We elucidate the interface-controlled nature of the single-grain growth in thin films and reveal the surface strains which may be a driving force for anisotropic crystallization rates. Our results bring in situ imaging with coherent X-rays towards understanding and controlling the crystallization processes of transparent conductive oxides and other polycrystalline materials at the nanoscale.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132111802&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43246-022-00260-4
DO - 10.1038/s43246-022-00260-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132111802
SN - 2662-4443
VL - 3
JO - Communications Materials
JF - Communications Materials
IS - 1
M1 - 38
ER -