Structural study of Cd(S,Se) doped glasses. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) assisted by image processing

Abstract

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) was used for examining Cd(S,Se) nanocrystals grown in silicate glasses commercially available as optical filters. The lattice images of the nanocrystals were numerated and submitted to filtering through Fourier transformation in order to sweep off the background signal originating mainly from glass. Optical filters from several firms were examined. The nanocrystals have been identified with Cd(S,Se) compounds crystallized in the wurzite structure, as in bulk material. The lattice images indicate crystallites having the shape of hexagonal prisms a little elongated along the c axis. The distribution of grain size differs according to the filter: the smallest size being about 1.5 nm (threshold for detection), the largest size varies from 7 to 10 nm, the average size sa , from 3–4 to 5–6 nm and the characteristic size sc from 5–6 to 7–8 nm (sc is the size of grains occupying the main part of the crystallized volume).