Growth of CuFeO${}_2$ Single Crystals by the Optical Floating-Zone Technique

Abstract

CuFeO${}_2$ single crystals up to 50 mm in length and up to 10 mm in diameter were grown by the optical floating-zone method. Stoichiometric polycrystalline rods with a diameter of 6-12 mm were used as feed materials to produce crystals of sufficient size to be used as substrates for the growth of thin films of delafossites. For stable growth along the $c$-axis, low growth rates of 0.4 mm/h are necessary. Due to the incongruent melting behavior of CuFeO${}_2$, a stable melt zone requires adjustment of the lamp power during growth. The melting of CuFeO${}_2$ is not simply incongruent because the thermodynamic equilibrium includes more than two solid phases and the melt; the gas phase is also involved. The crystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence measurements.

17 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (5)

• The properties of ultrapure delafossite metals
• Maximal Rashba-like spin splitting via kinetic energy-driven inversion symmetry breaking
• Unconventional aspects of electronic transport in delafossite oxides
• The control of iron oxidation state during FeO and olivine crystal growth
• Thermodynamic investigations on the growth of CuAlO${}_2$ delafossite crystals

Cited by in corpus (4)

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