Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Nanoscale phase separation in perovskites revisited

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 216–217 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor

Crystal structure determination becomes particularly complex when competing interactions cause intricate modulated structures. A striking example is given by the incommensurately modulated perovskites at ferroelectric–antiferroelectric morphotropic phase boundaries, which arise due to a competition between octahedral tilting distortions and polar cation displacements1,2. Extra complexity is expected when the displacement modulation is combined with occupational modulation, potentially leading to compositionally different domains that can be understood as nanoscale phase separation. Such an ordered pattern of two compositionally different nanodomains was proposed by Guiton and Davies3 to underlie the complex two-dimensionally modulated structure of (Nd2/3−xLi3x)TiO3 perovskites. However, our experimental study evidences an unfortunate misinterpretation of some of the electron microscopy data3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Electron diffraction and STEM analyses of (Nd2/3−xLi3x)TiO3.

References

  1. Rusakov, D. A. et al. Chem. Mater. 23, 285–292 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Borisevich, A. Y. et al. Nature Commun. 3, 775 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Guiton, B. S. & Davies, P. K. Nature Mater. 6, 586–591 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. García-Martín, S., García-Alvarado, F., Robertson, A. D., West, A. R. & Alario-Franco, M. A. J. Solid State Chem. 128, 97–101 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hartel, P., Rose, H. & Dinges, C. Ultramicroscopy 63, 93–114 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Abakumov, A. M. et al. Chem. Mater. 25, 2670–2683 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Dinges, C., Berger, A. & Rose, H. Ultramicroscopy 60, 49–70 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Guiton, B. S., Wu, H. & Davies, P. K. Chem. Mater. 20, 2860–2862 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Withers, R. L. et al. Chem. Mater. 25, 190–201 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Electron Microscopy Center, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf, CH-8600, Switzerland

    Rolf Erni & Marta D. Rossell

  2. EMAT, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, B-2020, Belgium

    Artem M. Abakumov, Dmitry Batuk & Gustaaf Van Tendeloo

  3. National Institute of Chemical Physics and Biophysics, Tallinn, 12618, Estonia

    Alexander A. Tsirlin

  4. Institut Laue Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, Grenoble, 38042, France

    Gwilherm Nénert

Authors
  1. Rolf Erni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Artem M. Abakumov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Marta D. Rossell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Dmitry Batuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Alexander A. Tsirlin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Gwilherm Nénert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Gustaaf Van Tendeloo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rolf Erni.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Erni, R., Abakumov, A., Rossell, M. et al. Nanoscale phase separation in perovskites revisited. Nature Mater 13, 216–217 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3865

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3865

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing