Diffuse electron scattering of a region in the system Li₂SnO₃-CoO

The occurrence of short range order in a region of the system Li₂SnO₃-CoO was identified via electron diffraction experiments. In the region studied, the resultant products have a NaCl-type structure in which oxygen anions and the Li¹⁺, Co²⁺, and Sn⁴⁺ cations form a distorted close packed network. Two types of electron diffraction patterns were obtained, one of them belongs to an ordered superstructure of rock salt type and the other one exhibits diffuse scattering intensity. Short-range order arises due to occurrence of a particular spatial cation distribution at microscopic level. These microscopic regions are responsible for the diffuse scattering in the electron diffraction patterns, which exhibit striking geometrical forms depending on crystallographic orientation. We describe the most probable cation distribution of the cationic species Li¹⁺, Co²⁺, and Sn⁴⁺, on octahedral clusters to give rise to the observed diffuse scattering.