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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 469 records · Page 26
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2019

Effects of Remelting Current on Structure, Composition, Microsegregation, and Inclusions in Inconel 718 Electroslag Remelting Ingots

The macro- and microstructures, chemical compositions, microsegregations, and nonmetallic inclusion characteristics at different positions of the as-cast IN718 ingots produced by a laboratory-scale electroslag remelting (ESR) furnace under four remelting currents (150, 200, 250, and 300 A) were compared and investigated comprehensively. The results indicate that the average melting rate increases with the increasing remelting current, and the molten pool tends to be deeper. Thus, at the same position of the ESR ingots, the volume fraction of the segregated phase, the degree of elemental segregation, and the secondary dendrite arm spacing have the same tendency to increase with the increasing remelting current and show an increasing trend from the bottom to the top along the height of each ingot. If the current is set relatively low, the oxygen and nitrogen levels in the ingots increase, the conditions that make the contents and distributions of Al and Ti become unstable. In addition, the major nonmetallic inclusions in the IN718 ESR ingots are MgO·Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} complex oxide inclusions with a three-layer structure and (Nb,Ti)N nitrides. The volume fractions and mean equivalent diameters display a downward trend with the increasing remelting current. The size and quantity of these inclusions are always larger in the upper portions of the ingots than those in the lower portions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Development of Fe-9Cr Alloy via High-Energy Ball Milling and Spark Plasma Sintering

Iron and chromium powders were mixed and mechanically alloyed via high-energy ball milling for different time durations (2–20 h) to produce an alloy powder with a nominal composition of Fe-9Cr (wt.%). The milled Fe-9Cr powders were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to understand the impact of ball milling (BM) time on the characteristics of the milled powder. The optimized milled powder samples were then consolidated via spark plasma sintering (SPS) for different dwell times and temperatures. The density of consolidated samples was found to reach a maximum of 98%. Microstructural characterization of the SPS samples were performed using XRD, SEM, TEM and electron backscatter diffraction. This study highlights the principles and importance of high-energy BM and SPS of Fe-9Cr model alloy for the future development of more complex oxide dispersion-strengthened alloys for various applications including advanced nuclear reactor applications.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electric field control of magnetism: multiferroics and magnetoelectrics

This article is written on behalf of a large number of colleagues, collaborators, and researchers in the field of complex oxides as well as current and former students and postdocs who continue to enable and undertake cutting-edge research in the field of multiferroics, magnetoelectrics, and the pursuit of electric-field control of magnetism. What we present is something that is extremely exciting from both a fundamental science and applications perspective and has the potential to revolutionize our world. Needless to say, to realize this potential will require numerous new innovations, both in the fundamental science arena as well as translating these scientific discoveries into real applications. Thus, this article will attempt to bridge the gap between fundamental condensed-matter physics and the actual manifestations of the physical concepts into real-life applications. Here, we hope this article will help spur more translational research within the broad materials physics community.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Materials for a Sustainable Microelectronics Future: Electric Field Control of Magnetism with Multiferroics

This article is written on behalf of many colleagues, collaborators, and researchers in the field of complex oxides as well as current and former students and postdocs who continue to enable and undertake cutting-edge research in the field of multiferroics, magnetoelectrics, and the pursuit of electric-field control of magnetism. What I present is something that is extremely exciting from both a fundamental science and applications perspective and has the potential to revolutionize our world, particularly from a sustainability perspective. To realize this potential will require numerous new innovations, both in the fundamental science arena as well as translating these scientific discoveries into real applications. Thus, this article will attempt to bridge the gap between fundamental materials physics and the actual manifestations of the physical concepts into real-life applications. Further, I hope this article will help spur more translational research within the broad materials community.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Similar local order in disordered fluorite and aperiodic pyrochlore structures

A major challenge to understanding the response of materials to extreme environments ( e.g. , nuclear fuels/waste forms and fusion materials) is to unravel the processes by which a material can incorporate atomic-scale disorder, and at the same time, remain crystalline. While it has long been known that all condensed matter, even liquids and glasses, possess short-range order, the relation between fully-ordered, disordered, and aperiodic structures over multiple length scales is not well understood. For example, when defects are introduced ( via pressure or irradiation) into materials adopting the pyrochlore structure, these complex oxides either disorder over specific crystallographic sites, remaining crystalline, or become aperiodic. Here we present neutron total scattering results characterizing the irradiation response of two pyrochlores, one that is known to disorder (Er 2 Sn 2 O 7 ) and the other to amorphize (Dy 2 Sn 2 O 7 ) under ion irradiation. The results demonstrate that in both cases, the local pyrochlore structure is transformed into similar short range configurations that are best fit by the orthorhombic weberite structure, even though the two compositions have distinctly different structures, aperiodic vs. disordered-crystalline, at longer length scales. Thus, a material's resistance to amorphization may not depend primarily on local defect formation energies, but rather on the structure's compatibility with meso-scale modulations of the local order in a way that maintains long-range periodicity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Hierarchical domain structures in buckled ferroelectric free sheets

Flat elastic sheets tend to display wrinkles and folds. From pieces of clothing down to two-dimensional crystals, these corrugations appear in response to strain generated by sheet compression or stretching, thermal or mechanical mismatch with other elastic layers, or surface tension. Extensively studied in metals, polymers and, — more recently — in van der Waals exfoliated layers, with the advent of thin single crystal freestanding films of complex oxides, researchers are now paying attention to novel microstructural effects induced by bending ferroelectric-ferroelastics, where polarization is strongly coupled to lattice deformation. Here we show that wrinkle undulations in BaTiO3 sheets bonded to a viscoelastic substrate transform into a buckle delamination geometry when transferred onto a rigid substrate. Using spatially resolved techniques at different scales (Raman, scanning probe and electron microscopy), we show how these delaminations in the free BaTiO3 sheets display a self-organization of ferroelastic domains along the buckle profile that strongly differs from the more studied sinusoidal wrinkle geometry. Moreover, we disclose the hierarchical distribution of a secondary set of domains induced by the misalignment of these folding structures from the preferred in-plane crystallographic orientations. Our results disclose the relevance of the morphology and orientation of buckling instabilities in ferroelectric free sheets, for the stabilization of different domain structures, pointing to new routes for domain engineering of ferroelectrics in flexible oxide sheets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Sulfur-functionalized solid-phase materials for the selective separation of arsenic and selenium

Radioactive arsenic (As) isotopes are of growing interest for applications in nuclear medicine, national security, and environmental research. Recent efforts at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) have focused on aqueous harvesting of selenium-72,73 ( 72,73 Se) and their daughter isotopes, arsenic-72,73 ( 72,73 As), which are particularly valuable for medical applications and nuclear data studies, respectively. Both conventional isotope production and harvesting methods require chemical separations to purify radioactive As from parent and co-produced Se radioisotopes. While several solid-phase separation methods for As and Se exist, many depend on complex oxidation state control or highly acidic conditions. This study presents results for sulfur-based solid-phase materials selected to enable uptake at lower acidity and eliminate the need for intricate redox chemistry. Specifically, the performance of three covalently bound sulfur-based ligands were evaluated: (1) thiophenol-polystyrene, (2) propanethiol-silica, and (3) thiourea-silica. Uptake characteristics—including distribution coefficients (Dw), kinetics, and column separation behavior—were assessed using 75 Se and 73 As in hydrochloric (HCl) acid and nitric (HNO 3 ) solutions. The resins demonstrated high-yield (>95%) and high-purity As recovery across a range of HCl concentrations. Comparable results in HNO 3 were achieved when combined with anion exchange chromatography. Furthermore, the potential application of these materials for medical isotope generators was also investigated through ligand stability and repeated elution studies. Overall, sulfur leaching from the resins was negligible at the concentrations relevant for these separations but increased with higher acid concentrations.

Arsenic↗
DOE OSTI2018

Dynamics in hard condensed matter probed by X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy: Present and beyond

Insight into the spatial ordering and dynamics of structural heterogeneity in materials is at the heart of understanding their structure and function. X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) measures the dynamic structure factor providing S(Q,t) information on the spontaneous low-energy dynamics intrinsic to many materials. Combined with in situ and in operando capabilities, XPCS provides unique insight into a variety of scientific areas, including phase separation in binary alloys, aging in metallic glasses, surface dynamics during growth, domain wall dynamics in ferroic complex oxides and charge and spin density wave motion in quantum materials. In conclusion, this review summarizes some recent XPCS work in these areas and discusses scientific opportunities that will be made possible with the many-fold increase in coherent flux provided by the world-wide construction and commissioning of X-ray sources based on multi-bend achromat (MBA) storage ring (SR) lattices and high repetition rate free electron lasers (FELs).

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2026

Agentic framework for programmatic crystal structure generation using a fine-tuned worker–supervisor large language model

Platinum group metals (PGMs) underpin many catalytic technologies but face severe supply constraints, motivating the search for alternative materials and computational methods to accelerate discovery. While atomistic simulation tools such as Pymatgen and ASE have streamlined structure manipulation, they require detailed inputs, limiting accessibility for experimentalists and slowing early-stage exploration. Here, in this study, we present an AI-driven agentic framework that orchestrates worker–supervisor large language models (LLMs). The worker translates natural-language prompts of varying abstraction into valid crystallographic structures using a compact LLM fine-tuned with low-rank adaptation on a curated text–code–CIF dataset, emphasizing energy-efficient training. Benchmarking against the baseline CodeGen-350M-mono model shows that fine-tuning reduces hallucination rates from 100% to as low as 5% and improves structural match accuracy to up to 82% for fully specified inputs. Accuracy declines with decreasing prompt detail but remains nontrivial even when only stoichiometry and space group are provided, underscoring the LLM’s capacity for crystallographic inference. The supervisor Claude LLM evaluates the outputs and triggers iterative refinement through the worker’s built-in structure manipulation capabilities (e.g., supercell scaling, strain, vacancy, and substitution operations). We further demonstrate use cases for technologically relevant catalysts, including IrO 2 , pyrochlore Pb 2 Ir 2 O 7 , Ni 2 FeO 4 , and Ni 3 Mo, where the framework generates physically consistent structures that can be refined via geometry optimization. This work introduces a low-energy, language-driven pathway for integrating human and machine intelligence in materials design, paving the way for AI-assisted synthesis planning and high-throughput screening of complex oxides.

AI agent↗
DOE OSTI2020

The interplay between surface facet and reconstruction on isopropanol conversion over SrTiO 3 nanocrystals

Strontium titanate (SrTiO 3 ) is an extensively investigated perovskite for various applications due to its optical, electrical and chemical properties. To gain an in-depth understanding of the active sites involved in heterogeneous catalysis over the broadly used SrTiO 3 (STO), we studied a model reaction, isopropanol conversion, on three differently shape-controlled nanocrystals: cube, truncated cube and dodecahedra. SEM, XRD and XPS confirmed the morphology, phase and composition of STO shapes. Low energy ion scattering (LEIS) revealed the occurrence of surface reconstruction over STO shapes during O 2 pretreatment at different temperatures. Based on the catalytic activities, scanning transmission electron microscopy images and density functional theory calculations, the step sites on STO derived from surface reconstruction were proposed to be the active sites for isopropanol conversion. This was further confirmed by steady state isotopic kinetic analysis (SSITKA) which demonstrated similar intrinsic turnover frequencies (TOFs) for the differently reconstructed STO shapes. It is concluded that the crystal facets impose an indirect effect on the catalysis of STO via controlling the degrees of surface reconstruction: the less stable STO (1 1 0) facet (dodecahedra) leads to more step sites after reconstruction and hence higher overall reaction rate than the more stable (1 0 0) facet (cube). This work highlights the important interplay between the crystal facet and surface reconstruction in controlling the nature and density of active sties and thus catalysis over complex oxides.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2022

Functional properties of Yttrium Iron Garnett thin films on graphene-coated Gd 3 Ga 5 O 12 for remote epitaxial transfer

Remote epitaxial growth via a graphene interlayer and subsequent mechanical exfoliation of a free-standing membrane is a recently developed technique used to transfer complex oxide thin films onto non-native substrates to form heterogeneously integrated structures for various device applications. One such oxide is Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG), a material of choice for a wide range of magnetoelectric and spintronic devices owing to its strong magnetic properties and low microwave losses. YIG is predominantly grown on lattice matched Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG) substrates, but by utilizing the remote epitaxy technique, high quality YIG films can be transferred from GGG onto another substrate such as piezoelectric Lithium Niobate (LN). Mechanical strain coupling between the layers and magnetostrictive nature of YIG would allow for the investigation of the interplay in YIG/LN structures leading to the design of novel frequency agile magneto-acoustic devices. In this study functional properties of a YIG film grown using PLD on graphene-coated GGG substrate were investigated and compared to traditional YIG on GGG. Both materials were characterized in terms of crystal structure, surface morphology, FMR and Gilbert damping, and Raman and XAS spectroscopy. Further, it was found that YIG on graphene-coated GGG exhibits significantly higher microwave losses than standard YIG on GGG (FMR linewidth 30.9 vs 2.1 Oe at 10 GHz, and Gilbert damping coefficient 15.4x10 -4 vs 3.4x10 -4 respectively), which was attributed to increased concentration of Fe 2+ cations in YIG/Graphene/GGG. While the damping is higher in these studied films compared to YIG grown directly on GGG, the resulting properties are still very favorable compared to many other competing materials which can be grown without the need for lattice matched substrates, such as metallic ferromagnets.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2016

Effect of annealing on Curie temperature and phase transition in La{sub 0.55}Sr{sub 0.08}Mn{sub 0.37}O{sub 3} epitaxial films grown on SrTiO{sub 3} (100) substrates by reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering

Mn-poor LaSrMnO{sub 3} (LSMO) epitaxial films were grown on SrTiO{sub 3} (100) substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering in an argon and oxygen gas mix, and then the samples were annealed in air at various temperatures (T{sub a}). 2 theta-chi X-ray diffraction mapping, nano-beam diffraction analysis through transmission electron microscopy, and electron back scatter diffraction through scanning electron microscopy revealed that the crystal symmetry of the LSMO films changed from monoclinic/orthorhombic to rhombohedral on annealing in air. Curie temperature (T{sub C}) of the LSMO films was found to increase with increasing T{sub a}, and become higher than the room temperature at T{sub a} ≥ 861 °C, indicating that the cause of these changes was the filling of oxygen and the transition of the crystal symmetry into rhombohedral. - Highlights: •Mn-poor LSMO changed from monoclinic/orthorhombic to rhombohedral by oxygen supply. •Mn-poor LSMO was increased T{sub C} by changed crystal symmetry, and it showed T{sub C} above RT. •Annealed in air effectively supplied O{sub 2} more than O{sub 2} gas during sputtering •EBSD is useful to evaluate crystal symmetry of complex oxide film from the substrate.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Temperature-dependent oxygen release, intercalation behaviour and catalytic properties of V{sub 2}O{sub 5}.xNb{sub 2}O{sub 5} compounds

Graphical abstract: Temperature dependent oxygen loss and uptake of V{sub 2,38}Nb{sub 10,7}O{sub 32,7} in N{sub 2} (p(O{sub 2}) = 4 x 10{sup -5} bar) and IR spectra of gas mixtures after the reactor with V{sub 2,38}Nb{sub 10,7}O{sub 32,7} (A = 16.1 m{sup 2}/g) and propane. Highlights: {yields} V{sub 2}O{sub 5}.xNb{sub 2}O{sub 5} complex oxide compounds as catalysts. {yields} The (V, Nb){sub 2}O{sub 5} phases are able to a reversible release and uptake of oxygen without a structural variation. {yields} Metastable (V, Nb){sub 2}O{sub 5} phases are able to catalyse the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane and propene. {yields} Thermodynamically stable VNb{sub 9}O{sub 25} phase shows no measurable catalytic activity. -- Abstract: In order to investigate the catalytic properties, V{sub 2,38}Nb{sub 10,7}O{sub 32,7}, VNb{sub 9}O{sub 25} and solid solutions of V{sub 2}O{sub 5} in TT-Nb{sub 2}O{sub 5} were prepared by thermal decomposition of freeze-dried oxalate precursors. The samples were characterised by X-ray diffraction and surface area determination. The crystalline samples are capable of the intercalation of sodium and lithium ions from solution. Above a temperature of about 500 {sup o}C, in dependence on the oxygen partial pressure a reversible release and uptake of oxygen without a structural variation takes place. The catalytic properties have been evaluated for the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of propane and propene. There are only small differences in the catalytic activity of the different crystalline samples. Because of the relative high starting temperature, a selective catalytic oxidation of propane to propene is hardly observed.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2013

Anisotropic thermal expansion and anharmonic phonon behavior of mullite-type Bi{sub 2}Ga{sub 4}O{sub 9}

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • Anisotropic lattice thermal expansion of Bi{sub 2}Ga{sub 4}O{sub 9} was modeled using extended Grüneisen first-order approximation. • The model includes harmonic, quasi-harmonic and intrinsic anharmonic contributions to the internal energy. • Temperature dependent Raman frequency shift and line-width was analyzed using symmetric phonon decay channel. - Abstract: We report the lattice thermal expansion and the temperature-dependent phonon behavior of the mullite-type Bi{sub 2}Ga{sub 4}O{sub 9} complex oxide. The thermal expansion was studied using composite data collected from powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction between 100 K and 1273 K. The lattice expansion occurred in the order of a < c < b. The anisotropic expansion behavior was monitored with respect to thermal expansion coefficients and the anisotropy factor. The volume thermal expansion was expressed using an extended Grüneisen first-order approximation to the zero-pressure equation of state; the model includes harmonic, quasi-harmonic and intrinsic anharmonic contributions to the internal energy as a function of temperature. The temperature dependent Raman spectra were collected from a single crystal between 78 K and 1273 K. The shift of the frequencies and the broadening of the line-widths with increasing temperature helped to analyze the anharmonicity and the thermal behavior of some phonons.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2014

Lithium stoichiometry of solid electrolytes based on tetragonal Li{sub 7}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 12}

Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • We prepared Li{sub x}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 8.5+0.5x} (x = 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) by the citrate–nitrate method. • We studied phase composition and conductivity of Li{sub x}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 8.5+0.5x}. • We proposed a simple method to determine the carbonate impurity content in the solid electrolytes. • The synthesized solid electrolytes Li{sub x}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 8.5+0.5x} (x = 7–9) have 1.32–3.49 wt.% Li{sub 2}CO{sub 3}. • The composition with x = 9 has high total conductivity, 7.5 × 10{sup −6} S cm{sup −1}, at room temperature. - Abstract: Samples of Li{sub x}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 8.5+0.5x} (x = 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) were synthesized with the citrate–nitrate method. Neutron diffraction studies have shown the presence of lithium carbonate impurities in the synthesized compounds. We propose a simple and effective method to determine the carbonate impurity content in the solid electrolytes. The technique is based on the measurement of the carbon dioxide volume produced from the interaction of the investigated material with acid. Determined in this way, the content of Li{sub 2}CO{sub 3} in the synthesized electrolytes Li{sub 7}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 12}, Li{sub 8}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 12.5} and Li{sub 9}La{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}O{sub 13} are 1.32 ± 0.04, 1.95 ± 0.06 and 3.49 ± 0.10 wt.%, respectively. From the obtained data, the actual lithium content per formula unit of complex oxide was calculated for the synthesized compounds. The composition with x = 9 had the highest total conductivity, σ = 7.5 × 10{sup −6} S cm{sup −1}, at room temperature. All the investigated electrolytes have an activation energy of approximately 50 kJ mol{sup −1}.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Controllable synthesis of hydroxyapatite-supported palladium nanoparticles with enhanced catalytic activity

A multi-stage electrochemical method was developed to synthesize palladium (Pd) nanoparticles supported on hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings. In the first stage, a dense coating of HA nanocrystals was synthesized from an aqueous electrolyte solution onto a titanium cathode surface through a galvanostatic process. The HA-coated titanium electrode was then used as the cathode for the electrochemical reduction of Pd2+ from aqueous solution. A synthesis approach using two sequential electrochemical reduction reactions was found to be more e ective in producing uniform coatings of Pd nanoparticles than a single stage reduction. In the first step, a higher voltage was applied to the cathode for a short time to promote the nucleation of Pd nanoparticles. A lower voltage was then applied for a longer time in the second stage to promote the growth of the Pd nanoparticles. The size and size distribution of the Pd nanoparticles were controlled by adjusting the duration of the first and second stages of electrochemical reduction. The resulting HA supported Pd nanoparticles demonstrated significantly higher catalytic activity than commercial Pd nanoparticles in the degradation of methyl orange by NaBH 4 . The high surface area and the complex oxidation states of the HA-supported Pd nanoparticles are believed to account for the enhanced catalytic activity.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2016

Stabilization of MgAl 2 O 4 spinel surfaces via doping

Here, the surface structure of complex oxides plays a vital role in processes such as sintering, thin film growth, and catalysis, as well as being a critical factor determining the stability of nanoparticles. We report atomistic calculations of the low-index stoichiometric magnesium aluminate spinel (MgAl 2 O 4 ) surfaces, each with two different chemical terminations. High temperature annealing was used to explore the potential energy landscape and provide more stable surface structures. We find that the lowest energy surface is {100} while the highest energy surface is {111}. The surfaces were subsequently doped with three trivalent dopants (Y 3+ , Gd 3+ , La 3+ ) and one tetravalent dopant (Zr 4+ ) and both the surface segregation energies of the dopants and surface energies of the doped surface were determined. All of the dopants reduce the surface energy of spinel, though this reduction in energy depends on both the size and valence of the dopant. Dopants with larger ionic radius tend to segregate to the surface more strongly and reduce the surface energy to a greater extent. Furthermore, the ionic valence of the dopants seems to have a stronger influence on the segregation than does ionic size. For both undoped and doped spinel, the predicted crystal shape is dominated by {100} surfaces, but the relative fraction of the various surfaces changes with doping due to the unequal changes in energy, which has implications on equilibrium nanoparticle shapes and therefore on applications sensitive to surface properties.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2018

Phase Intergrowth and Structural Defects in Organic Metal Halide Ruddlesden–Popper Thin Films

Organic metal halide Ruddlesden–Popper phases combine the excellent optoelectronic properties of three-dimensional, bulk hybrid perovskites with superior material stability in ambient conditions. However, the thin film structure of these layered perovskites is still poorly understood, as phase purity is typically determined solely by specular X-ray diffraction. The thin film structure of these Ruddlesden–Popper phases was examined by increasingly local characterization techniques. It is difficult to assess the phase purity by purely bulk optical and diffraction measurements. From the comparison of grazing-incidence wide angle X-ray scattering (GIWAXS) patterns of cast films to expected scattering from single-crystal structures, significant in-plane disorder was observed. Spatially localized photoluminescence measurements show that films do not phase separate on the micrometer-scale. Selected area electron diffraction measurements show the intergrowth of different phases within the same thin film, consistent with previous observations seen in epitaxially-grown Ruddlesden–Popper complex oxides. Despite the presence of phase impurities that would typically be detrimental for device performance, fits to photothermal deflection spectroscopy measurements show relatively low Urbach energies of 33 meV for (C 4 H 9 NH 3 ) 2 (CH 3 NH 3 ) 2 Pb 3 I 10 and 32 meV for (C 4 H 9 NH 3 ) 2 (CH 3 NH 3 ) 3 Pb 4 I 13 , indicating that the electronic properties are insensitive to the phase impurities.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗