New modulated structures induced by electron beam irradiation in SrCrO3 single crystal

Three new modulated structures induced by controllable electron beam irradiation (EBI) were obtained from SrCrO3 single crystal. The crystal and electronic structures were investigated using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and ab initio calculations. The EELS results revealed that EBI induced ordered oxygen vacancies and generated modulated structures SrCrO2.5 (I4/mmm), SrCrO2.8 (C2/m) and SrCrO2.67 (C2/m) from pristine SrCrO3 (Pmm). The corresponding structural models were proposed and modified by ab initio calculations. Additionally, the electronic structures of the optimized modulated structures were further investigated.