Mapping chemical disorder and ferroelectric distortions in the double perovskite compound Sr 2-x Gd x MnTiO6 by atomic resolution electron microscopy and spectroscopy.

In this work we report a study of the chemical and structural order of the double perovskite compound Sr 2-x Gd x MnTiO6 for compositions x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1. A noticeable disorder at the B-site in the Mn and Ti sublattice is detected at the atomic scale by electron energy-loss spectroscopy for all x values, resulting in Mn-rich and Ti-rich regions. For x ≥ 0.75, the cubic unit cell doubles and lowers its symmetry because of structural rearrangements associated with a giant ferroelectric displacement of the perovskite B-site cation. We discuss this finding in the light of the large electroresistance observed in Sr 2-x Gd x MnTiO6, x ≥ 0.75.