Dislocations in nanocrystalline SnO2 thin films

Dislocations of Burgers vector (101) in nano-sized SnO2 crystallites have been investigated by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. They exist either as ordinary dislocations or as extended dislocations. The extended dislocations are composed of a crystallographic shear plane (CSP) and two partial dislocations of Burgers vector (1/2O1/2) . There are two types of the relationship between the orientation (hkl) and the displacement vector [uvw] of the (hkl)[uvw] CSP: firstly ( hkl ) \[ uvw ] and secondly ( hkl ) is not parallel to \[ uvw ]. The CSP is oriented parallel to {1 01} and \[ uvw ] equals (1/2o1/2) . Face-sharing SnO6 octahedra exist at cores of extended dislocations. The local composition at dislocation cores varies with dislocation type and is different from the stoichiometric composition of SnO2.