Abstract
Porosity-free nanocrystalline (nc) element Se samples with mean grain sizes ranging from 13 to 70 nm were synthesized by crystallizing a melt-quenched amorphous Se solid. Microstructures of the nc-Se (with a hcp structure) samples were characterized by means of quantitative x-ray-diffraction measurements. The Bragg reflection and the background intensities, as well as the reflection shape of the x-ray-diffraction patterns for the nc Se were analyzed according to data fitting of the measurement results. The grain-size dependencies of the microstrain, lattice parameters, unit-cell volume, and the mean Debye-Waller parameter were determined. With a reduction of grain size, the microstrain increases significantly along 〈100〉 direction but decreases along 〈104〉 direction, and exhibits an increasing anisotropic microstrain behavior. The lattice parameter was found to increase evidently while decreased slightly with a decreasing grain size, resulting in a significant lattice distortion with a dilated unit-cell volume. It agrees with the observation that the mean Debye-Waller parameter increases with a reduction of grain size, suggesting larger displacements of atoms from their ideal lattice sites in the nc-Se samples with smaller grains. The similarity of the grain-size dependencies of these structural parameters as that of the grain-boundary volume fraction implies that the intrinsic microstructure feature of nc materials is closely related to the crystallite dimension and the amount of grain boundaries.
- Received 4 February 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.56.14322
©1997 American Physical Society