Structural changes induced by Sn, Zr, Al substitution in ZnkIn2Ok+3 transparent conducting oxides powders as deduced by transmission electron microscopy

Sn, Zr and Al substituted ZnkIn2Ok+3 powders were made using high temperature solid state reactions. The resulting samples were first characterized by means of powder Xray diffraction (XRD) and then by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to identify the microstructures and phase compositions occasionally occurring within a particle. We found that the substituted powder samples are usually composed of particles made of ZnkIn2Ok+3 polytypes intergrowth mixed with grains of In2O3-type structure, rather than being single phase. From a complete analysis of the collected HRTEM images we obtained a statistical polytype population distribution that was used to satisfactorily simulate the experimental XRD patterns based on Hendricks and Teller approximation.