Study of Crystallization and Coalescence of Nanocrystals in Amorphous Glass at High Temperature.

Amorphous fluoride glass is used as the reaction chamber (i.e., solid cell) to grow Ba2LaF7 (BLF) nanocrystals at elevation temperatures (i.e., 300-500 °C) so that in situ real-time crystallization and coalescence of BLF nanocrystals can be observed. Due to the inherent advantages of the liquid-like solid medium, high temporal and spatial resolution transmission electron microscopy images can be obtained. Hence, we reveal that the twinned and quadruplet BLF nanocrystals are formed at low temperature (≤430 °C) and the unification of two nanocrystals via the two pathways (i.e., migration with and without rotation) to a single defect-free BLF nanocrystal is favored at high temperature (≥470 °C).