Atomic-scale chemical quantification of oxide interfaces using energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

Atomic-scale quantification of chemical composition across oxide interfaces is important for understanding physical properties of epitaxial oxide nanostructures. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) in an aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscope was used to quantify chemical composition across the interface of ferromagnetic La _0.7Sr_0.3MnO₃ and antiferromagnetic BiFeO ₃ quantum structure. This research demonstrates that chemical composition at atomic columns can be quantified by Gaussian peak-fitting of EDS compositional profiles across the interface. Cation diffusion was observed at both A- and B-sublattice sites; and asymmetric chemical profiles exist across the interface, consistent with the previous studies.