Iron single crystal growth from a lithium-rich melt

Abstract

α-Fe single crystals of rhombic dodecahedral habit were grown from a melt of Li${}_{84}$N${}_{12}$Fe${}_{\sim 3}$. Crystals of several millimeter along a side form at temperatures around $T\approx 800^{\circ }$C. Upon further cooling the growth competes with the formation of Fe-doped Li${}_3$N. The b.c.c. structure and good sample quality of α-Fe single crystals were confirmed by X-ray and electron diffraction as well as magnetization measurements and chemical analysis. A nitrogen concentration of 90\,ppm was detected by means of carrier gas hot extraction. Scanning electron microscopy did not reveal any sign of iron nitride precipitates.

13 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Giant magnetic anisotropy and tunnelling of the magnetization in Li2(Li_{1-x}Fe_x)N
• Electronic correlations determine the phase stability of iron up to the melting temperature
• Single crystal growth from light, volatile, and reactive materials using lithium and calcium flux
• X-Ray diffraction on large single crystals using a powder diffractometer