A Second Amorphous Layer Underneath Surface Oxide. (23rd February 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Bin; Peng, Kunlin; Sha, Xuechao; Li, Ang; Zhou, Xiaoyuan; Chen, Yanhui; Deng, QingSong; Yang, Dingfeng; Ma, Evan; Han, Xiaodong
• Is Part Of: Microscopy and microanalysis. Volume 23:Number 1(2017)
• Page Start: 173
• Page End: 178
• Publication Date: 2017-02-23
• Subjects: surface oxidation, -- solid-state amorphization, -- SnSe single crystal, -- high angle annular dark field (HAADF) imaging, -- interdiffusion; Microscopy -- Periodicals; Microchemistry -- Periodicals; 502.82
• DOI: 10.1017/S143192761700006X
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1431-9276

Abstract

Abstract: Formation of a nanometer-scale oxide surface layer is common when a material is exposed to oxygen-containing environment. Employing aberration-corrected analytical transmission electron microscopy and using single crystal SnSe as an example, we show that for an alloy, a second thin amorphous layer can appear underneath the outmost oxide layer. This inner amorphous layer is not oxide based, but instead originates from solid-state amorphization of the base alloy when its free energy rises to above that of the metastable amorphous state; which is a result of the composition shift due to the preferential depletion of the oxidizing species, in our case, the outgoing Sn reacting with the oxygen atmosphere.