Microstructure and charge-ordering transitions in LuFe2O4

TL;DR

This study investigates the microstructure, phase transitions, and charge ordering in LuFe2O4 using TEM, revealing temperature-dependent charge orderings and their role in structural and ferroelectric transitions.

Contribution

It provides detailed TEM analysis of charge ordering and structural transitions in LuFe2O4, highlighting the temperature dependence of charge order and its influence on ferroelectricity.

Findings

Charge ordering appears as stripe patterns at low temperatures.

Charge order modulation disappears above 530K.

Charge ordering drives structural and ferroelectric transitions.

Abstract

Microstructure properties, phase transitions, and charge ordering in the LuFe2O4 materials have been extensively investigated by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The (001) twins as a common defect frequently appear in the LuFe2O4 crystals along the c-axis direction, and the crystals across each boundary are rotated by 180 degree with respect to one another. The in-situ cooling TEM observations reveal remarkable temperature dependence of the superstructures in correlation with charger ordering (CO). The Fe2+, Fe3+, and Fe+2.5 ions are found to be crystallized in ordered stripes at the frustrated ground state characterized by a modulation with the wave vector of q1 =(1/3 1/3 2). In-situ heating TEM observations on LuFe2O4 clearly demonstrate that this modulation becomes evidently invisible above a critical temperature of about Tc=530K. These facts suggest that the CO should be the essential driving force for the structural transitions and ferroelectricity observed in present system.