Electron microscopy of microwave-synthesized rare-earth chromites

Abstract

The perovskite rare-earth (RE) chromite series (RE)CrO3 (RE = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Y, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) has been synthesized in our laboratory using microwave techniques. In this work we will demonstrate how X-ray diffraction (XRD), Rietveld refinement of XRD pattern and complementary High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM) were used to confirm that the desired crystal structure had been formed. Field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) gave clear indications of the shapes and sizes of the powder crystallites. Magnetization measurement data was found to correlate with the structural information obtained from XRD, Rietveld refinement and HRTEM.