Centrosymmetric crystal structure of BiMnO3 studied by transmission electron microscopy and theoretical simulations

In this paper, electron diffraction (ED), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and theoretical simulations have been used to study the room-temperature structure of the multiferroic BiMnO3 synthesized under high pressure. The electron diffraction data reveal that BiMnO3 crystallizes in the centrosymmetric C2/c structure, not in the non-centrosymmetric C2 structure. This is confirmed by further calculations of ED patterns and HRTEM images. The present work is very important for the further studies of BiMnO3.