Superposition twinning supported by texture in ZnO nanospikes

The morphology and real structure of wurtzite-type ZnO nanospikes grown by the recently introduced flame transport synthesis have been examined by means of advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The rapid synthesis produces nanospikes showing a well defined texture which restricts TEM experiments to a preferred viewing direction of []. Forced by the specific morphology, all of the observed nanospikes show a complicated superposition of twinned domains as an intrinsic real structural feature. The high-resolution contrasts are characterized by lamellar fringes parallel to the () planes, and the quasi-kinematic diffraction patterns contain satellite peaks based on multiple scattering. All these phenomena can be interpreted by comparison of experimental and simulated data relying on a supercell approach.