Competing Pathways for Nucleation of the Double Perovskite Structure in the Epitaxial Synthesis of La 2 MnNiO 6
Over the past decades a confluence of advanced synthesis techniques, data-driven characterization, and rapid increases in computing power has sparked a renaissance in materials engineering. The emerging “materials-by-design” approach, while radically transforming the development of multicomponent systems, has tended to overlook the complex kinetic pathways that define materials synthesis. Although we are able to envision almost limitless materials combinations, we are unable to synthesize all of them in practice, since existing characterization and modeling approaches often fail to capture the inherent complexity of such systems. There is currently a disconnect between highly local structural characterization and macroscale properties measurements, resulting in oversimplified or incomplete structure-property models. Here we describe a multi-technique approach that combines aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy with emerging oxide atom probe tomography to measure chemical ordering and extended defects in the model complex oxide, La2MnNiO6. We visualize cation ordering, as well as a three-dimensional network of secondary phases, which we describe in terms of ab initio structure calculations. We propose a defect model in which these phases alter their surrounding octahedral environment, severely disrupting cation superexchange. Through this array of experimental and theoretical techniques, we uncover fundamental structure-property relationships and illustrate a new approach to engineer complex, multicomponent systems.