The researchers are the first to observe metallic lines in a perovskite crystal. Perovskites abound in the Earth s center, and barium stannate (BaSnO3) is one such crystal. However, it has not been studied extensively for metallic properties because of the prevalence of more conductive materials on the planet like metals or semiconductors. The finding was made using advanced transmission electron microscopy (TEM), a technique that can form images with magnifications of up to 10 million. The research is published in Science Advances, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The conductive nature and preferential direction of these metallic line defects mean we can make a material that is transparent like glass and at the same time very nicely directionally conductive like a metal, said Mkhoyan, a TEM expert and the Ray D. and Mary T. Johnson/Mayon Plastics Chair in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Ma