Absence of evidence ≠ evidence of absence: statistical analysis of inclusions in multiferroic thin films

Schmidt, Michael; Amann, Andreas; Keeney, Lynette; Pemble, Martyn E.; Holmes, Justin D.; Petkov, Nikolay; Whatmore, Roger W.

Absence of evidence ≠ evidence of absence: statistical analysis of inclusions in multiferroic thin films

dc.contributor.author	Schmidt, Michael
dc.contributor.author	Amann, Andreas
dc.contributor.author	Keeney, Lynette
dc.contributor.author	Pemble, Martyn E.
dc.contributor.author	Holmes, Justin D.
dc.contributor.author	Petkov, Nikolay
dc.contributor.author	Whatmore, Roger W.
dc.contributor.funder	Science Foundation Ireland	en
dc.date.accessioned	2016-02-25T17:23:59Z
dc.date.available	2016-02-25T17:23:59Z
dc.date.issued	2014-07-16
dc.description.abstract	Assertions that a new material may offer particularly advantageous properties should always be subjected to careful critical evaluation, especially when those properties can be affected by the presence of inclusions at trace level. This is particularly important for claims relating to new multiferroic compounds, which can easily be confounded by unobserved second phase magnetic inclusions. We demonstrate an original methodology for the detection, localization and quantification of second phase inclusions in thin Aurivillius type films. Additionally, we develop a dedicated statistical model and demonstrate its application to the analysis of Bi6Ti2.8Fe1.52Mn0.68O18 (B6TFMO) thin films, that makes it possible to put a high, defined confidence level (e.g. 99.5%) to the statement of ‘new single phase multiferroic materials’. While our methodology has been specifically developed for magnetic inclusions, it can easily be adapted to any other material system that can be affected by low level inclusions.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	Science Foundation Ireland (SFI FORME Strategic Research Cluster Award number 07/SRC/I1172, Starting Investigator Research Grant (09/SIRG/I1621) and (09/SIRG/I1615))	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Published Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	SCHMIDT, M., AMANN, A., KEENEY, L., PEMBLE, M. E., HOLMES, J. D., PETKOV, N. & WHATMORE, R. W. 2014. Absence of Evidence ≠ Evidence of Absence: Statistical Analysis of Inclusions in Multiferroic Thin Films. Scientific Reports, 4, 5712. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep05712	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1038/srep05712
dc.identifier.endpage	5712 (8)	en
dc.identifier.issn	2045-2322
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Scientific Reports	en
dc.identifier.startpage	5712 (1)	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/2405
dc.identifier.volume	4	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan Publishers Limited	en
dc.rights	© Schmidt et al, 2014; licensee Nature Publishing Group, 2015. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivs 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/	en
dc.subject	New multiferroic compounds	en
dc.subject	Magnetic inclusions	en
dc.subject	B6TFMO	en
dc.subject	Thin films	en
dc.subject	Microscopy	en
dc.subject	Microanalysis	en
dc.title	Absence of evidence ≠ evidence of absence: statistical analysis of inclusions in multiferroic thin films	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en