Incubational domain characterization in lightly doped ceria

Microstructures of both Gd- and Y-doped ceria with different doping level (i.e., 10 at% and 25 at%) have been comprehensively characterized by means of high resolution transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction. Coherent nano-sized domains can be widely observed in heavily doped ceria. Nevertheless, it was found that a large amount of dislocations actually exist in lightly doped ceria instead of heavily doped ones. Furthermore, incubational domains can be detected in lightly doped ceria, with dislocations located at the interfaces. The interactions between such linear dislocations and dopant defects have been simulated accordingly. As a consequence, the formation mechanism of incubational domains is rationalized in terms of the interaction between intrinsic dislocations of doped ceria and dopant defects. This study offers the insights into the initial state and related mechanism of the formation of nano-sized domains, which have been widely observed in heavily rare-earth-doped ceria in recent years. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.