In situ electron diffraction tomography study of the successive phase transitions in LaTaO4 nanocrystals
) with a modulation vector q ≈ (0.4669, 0, 0) through a combination of 3D ED and high-resolution electron microscopy imaging. The real-time tracking reveals three first-order phase transitions governed by synergetic Ta-O bond distortion dynamics. These findings establish a hierarchical phase transition model that reconciles previous studies and these single nanocrystal observations.
Authors
- Grant W. Howieson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4281-8404)
- Finlay D. Morrison (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2813-3142)
- Shitao Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2737-6011)
- Wuzong Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9752-7076)
- Yanhang Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4814-3740)
- Changhan Peng
Institutions
- University of St Andrews (GB)
- ShanghaiTech University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-04-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71824-y
- Primary Topic
- Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality