Planar faults in layered Bi-containing perovskites studied by x-ray diffraction line profile analysis

Abstract

Profile fitting procedures associated with integral breadth studies and Fourier analysis are applied to the study of the complex Bi-containing layered perovskite SrBi2Nb2O9. Strong line broadening anisotropy is evidenced. Both 'size' and 'strain' effects contribute to the observed width. However, 'size' broadening along the [00] direction is essentially caused by stacking faults. The coherently diffracting domain sizes are deduced from Fourier analysis of the diffraction patterns and a rough estimate of the mean distance between faults is given. Thermal annealing significantly decreases the stacking fault density. © 2001 International Union of Crystallography Printed in Great Britain - all rights reserved.