Characterization of crystallite morphology for doped strontium fluoride nanophosphors by TEM and XRD

Crystallite morphology for Eu-doped and undoped SrF2 nanophosphors have been determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The values for average crystallite size obtained by the application of the Scherrer equation and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) values for XRD peaks are compared to the results obtained using the hollow cone dark field (HCDF) TEM imaging technique. In the case of the TEM analysis, a bimodal crystallite size distribution was revealed with one of the distributions having a measured range of crystallite sizes which was in good agreement with the XRD data. HCDF in combination with FIB specimen preparation was found to be a promising technique for the determination of crystallite size distributions in nanophosphors which might facilitate a better understanding of their scintillation properties.