We studied RE-Au-Si systems, which are 1/1 Tsai-type quasicrystalline approximants with cluster center decoration, which can be distorted tetrahedrons, rare earth atoms or intermediate clusters of randomly distributed distorted tetrahedrons and rare earth atoms. We showed that by correlating line intensity profiles extracted from experimentally obtained high-angle annular dark field STEM (HAADF-STEM) images with line intensity profiles extracted from corresponding simulated images, it is possible to determine which kind of cluster centre decoration is present in studied materials. In particular, we found that due to probe channelling in scanning direction coinciding with the (Figure 20) crystallographic plane across the center of the cluster, the presence of distorted tetrahedron results in intensity broadening while rare-earth atom at the center results in sharp intensity. The results of this study were published in the Israel Journal of Chemistry (https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202300117).
Figure 20: Combining scanning transmission electron microscopy images and their simulations with X-ray diffraction allows (https://doi.org/10.1002/ijch.202300117)
