Highlights•Developed a new process for extracting more information from a series of STEM images.•An objective non-rigid registration process copes with distortions.•Images of zeolite Y show retrieval of all information available from the data set.•Quantitative measures of registration quality were implemented.•Applicable to any serially acquired data, e.g. STM, AFM, STXM, etc.The extraordinary improvements of modern imaging devices offer access to data with unprecedented information content. However, widely used image processing methodologies fall far short of exploiting the full breadth of information offered by numerous types of scanning probe, optical, and electron microscopies. In many applications, it is necessary to keep measurement intensities below a desired threshold. We propose a methodology for extracting an increased level of information by processing a series of data sets suffering, in particular, from high degree of spatial uncertainty caused by complex multiscale motion during the acquisition process. An important role is played by a non-rigid pixel-wise registration method that can cope with low signal-to-noise ratios. This is accompanied by formulating objective quality measures which replace human intervention and visual inspection in the processing chain. Scanning transmission electron microscopy of siliceous zeolite material exhibits the above-mentioned obstructions and therefore serves as orientation and a test of our procedures.

A near UV excitable phosphor Sr2.85Eu0.1Al0.9In0.1O4−αF1−δ was made by reducing as-made Sr2.85Eu0.1Al0.9In0.1O4F. This material reveals defect-induced broad-band photoluminescence emissions centered at 600 nm and a line emission at 619 nm due to the5D0 → 7F2 transition of the Eu activator (curve 1). Such combined line and broad-band emitters have the potential when combined with another broad-band emitting phosphor with emissions near 500 nm to create white light by converting near-UV light from a Ga1−xInxN light-emitting device.

The ambient structure and pressure-induced structural changes of a synthetic sodium aluminogermanate with a natrolite (NAT) framework topology (Na−AlGe-NAT) were characterized by using Rietveld refinements of high-resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data at ambient and high pressures. Unlike a previously established model for Na8Al8Ge12O40·8H2O based on a single-crystal study, the ambient structure of the Na−AlGe-NAT is found to adopt a monoclinic space group Cc (or Fd) with a ca. 6% expanded unit cell. The refined ambient structure of Na8Al8Ge12O40·12H2O indicates an increased water content of 50%, compared to the single-crystal structure. The unit-cell volume and water-content relationships observed between the two Na−AlGe-NAT structures at ambient conditions with 8 and 12 H2O respectively seem to mirror the ones found under hydrostatic pressure between the Na8Al8Si12O40·8H2O and the parantrolite phase Na8Al8Si12O40·12H2O. Under hydrostatic pressures mediated by a pore-penetrating alcohol and water mixture, the monoclinic Na−AlGe-NAT exhibits a gradual decrease of the unit-cell volume up to ca. 2.0 GPa, where the unit-cell volume then contracts abruptly by ca. 4.6%. This is in marked contrast to what is observed in the Na−AlSi-NAT and Na−GaSi-NAT systems, where one observes a pressure-induced hydration and volume expansion due to the auxetic nature of the frameworks. Above 2 GPa, the monoclinic phase of Na−AlGe-NAT transforms into a tetragonal structure with the unit-cell composition of Na8Al8Ge12O40·16H2O, revealing pressure-induced hydration and a unit cell volume contraction. Unlike in the Na−Al,Si-paranatrolite phase, however, the sodium cations in the Na−AlGe-NAT maintain a 6-fold coordination in the monoclinic structure and only become 7-fold coordinated at higher pressures in the tetragonal structure. When comparing the pressure-induced hydration in the observed natrolite-type zeolites, Na−AlGe-NAT appears to have a nonauxetic framework and reveals the highest onset pressure for complete superhydration.

Using high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy, we investigated electron-beam-induced fragmentation (EBIF) processes in NiBi alloys. We are able to establish the presence of very small clusters of nanoparticles that eluded detection in earlier TEM work and, furthermore, confirm the existence of core−shell particles with a Bi core and a Ni−Bi shell. On the basis of these and earlier observations, we propose a general mechanism for the creation of core−shell particles using EBIF.

We have been able to synthesize Na0.3CoO2⋅2H2O and determine the structure of this bi-layer hydrate with a monoclinic lattice distortion while essentially maintaining the spatial separation of the CoO2 layers as in the superconducting Na0.3CoO2⋅1.4H2O. Magnetization data of Na0.3CoO2⋅2H2O reveal a loss of superconductivity above 2 K.