Structural investigations conducted using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on LuH2 synthesized under atmospheric pressure (AP-LuH2) and nitrogen-doped LuH2 synthesized under high pressure (HP-LuH2) have revealed numerous microstructural phenomena. Both materials show a clear superstructure modulation with wave vector, q^* = 1/4 (2-20), and this modulation can be well interpreted by the displacements of Lu atoms. Further investigations on the nitrogen-doped HP-LuH2 materials reveal the appearance of high-density antiphase boundaries, in particular, domain walls of a few atomic layer thickness without structural modulation can be observed, suggesting possible interface properties could be detected in this system. In-situ TEM observations of AP-LuH2 suggest that no evident structural phase transition occurs between 94 K and 673 K.
@article{arxiv.2309.14927,
title = {Microstructure and structural modulation of lutetium dihydride LuH2 as seen via transmission electron microscopy},
author = {Xiao-Ping Ma and Ning-Ning Wang and Wen-Tao Wang and Jing-Zhe Nie and Wen-Li Gao and Shuai-Shuai Sun and Jun Li and Huan-Fang Tian and Tian-Long Xia and Jin-Guang Cheng and Jian-Qi Li and Huai-Xin Yang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.14927},
year = {2023}
}