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Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method

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A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2019) | Viewed by 26182

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Hanna A. Dabkowska

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Guest Editor

Brockhouse Institute of Materials Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
Interests: crystals; oxides; optical floating zone method; crystallography; characterisation; new materials

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this Special Issue “Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method” is to create a forum for scientists who either explore the crystal growth process itself or analyse the crystals produced by the OFZ technique.

There is a continuous demand for functional oxide crystals with optical, magnetic and superconducting properties tailored for specific applications and for new substrates with parameters enabling the growth of new thin films.

The OFZ crystal growth method is complementary to established techniques like the Czochralski and Bridgman methods. It operates without the limitations of a crucible, conveniently applying an inert, oxidising or reducing atmosphere and allowing the growth of oxides, and their solid solutions to melt congruently or incongruently, often at relatively high temperatures and pressure. It is a convenient technique for the creation of new compositions and controlling unusual oxidation states in the search for promising chemical and physical properties.

All researchers are invited to contribute and present their achievements here. As the properties of created materials depend on the crystal quality, in this issue there is also room for different aspects of the characterisation of the materials grown by OFZ and for the comparison of the oxides grown by this technique with those grown by other methods.

All reports about the

- growth of “exotic” oxides never grown as crystals before;

- growth of crystals with controlled doping;

- highlights of new approaches to the OFZ method itself, including the

- modification of the technique:

- modelling of the process;

- and the application of OFZ in the search for new materials

are very much welcome in this issue.

Dr. Hanna A. Dabkowska
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Crystals
Oxides
Optical Floating Zone Method
Characterisation
New Materials

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 12048 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Contemporary Apparatus for Single Crystals Growth of Oxide Compounds and Metals by Optical Floating Zone (FZ)

by Anatoly M. Balbashov

Crystals 2019, 9(10), 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9100487 - 20 Sep 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4522

Abstract

A contemporary apparatus with radiation (light) heating for growth of single crystals of refractory oxides and metals is described. To reduce the dissociation or evaporation of the melt or crystal components, the growth process was carried out in oxygen or an alternative gas at pressures up to 100 bar. The annealing system applied directly in the growth process at 1650 °C under O₂ pressure and at temperatures up to 2500 °C under protective gas flow, allows the obtaining of large and perfect single crystals. Many single crystals of oxide materials, including incongruently melting substances, such as Y₃Fe₅O₁₂, Gd₃Fe₅O₁₂, BaFe₁₂O₁₉, SrFe₁₂O₁₉, BaFe_12-x Al_xO₁₉, and many others have been grown, and much more could be grown. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method)

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12 pages, 5679 KiB

Open AccessArticle

High pO₂ Floating Zone Crystal Growth of the Perovskite Nickelate PrNiO₃

by Hong Zheng, Junjie Zhang, Bixia Wang, Daniel Phelan, Matthew J. Krogstad, Yang Ren, W. Adam Phelan, Omar Chmaissem, Bisham Poudel and J. F. Mitchell

Crystals 2019, 9(7), 324; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9070324 - 26 Jun 2019

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5313

Abstract

Single crystals of PrNiO₃ were grown under an oxygen pressure of 295 bar using a unique high-pressure optical-image floating zone furnace. The crystals, with volume in excess of 1 mm³, were characterized structurally using single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. Resistivity, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility were measured, all of which evidenced an abrupt, first order metal-insulator transition (MIT) at ~130 K, in agreement with previous literature reports on polycrystalline specimens. Temperature-dependent single crystal diffraction was performed to investigate changes through the MIT. Our study demonstrates the opportunity space for high fugacity, reactive environments for single crystal growth specifically of perovskite nickelates but more generally to correlated electron oxides. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method)

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9 pages, 2709 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Floating Zone Growth of Sr Substituted Han Purple: Ba_0.9Sr_0.1CuSi₂O₆

by Pascal Puphal, Stephan Allenspach, Christian Rüegg and Ekaterina Pomjakushina

Crystals 2019, 9(5), 273; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9050273 - 27 May 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3997

Abstract

We present a route to grow single crystals of Ba

_{0.9}

_{0.1}

CuSi

_{2}

_{6}

suitable for inelastic neutron studies via the floating zone technique. Neutron single crystal diffraction was utilized to check their bulk quality and orientation. Finally, the high [...] Read more.

We present a route to grow single crystals of Ba

_{0.9}

_{0.1}

CuSi

_{2}

_{6}

suitable for inelastic neutron studies via the floating zone technique. Neutron single crystal diffraction was utilized to check their bulk quality and orientation. Finally, the high quality of the grown crystals was proven by X-ray diffraction and magnetic susceptibility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method)

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10 pages, 1832 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Optical Observation of Striations in Y₂Ti₂O₇ Single Crystals

by Changyou Liu, Antoni Dabkowski, Wanqi Jie, Bruce D. Gaulin and Hanna A. Dabkowska

Crystals 2019, 9(5), 233; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9050233 - 01 May 2019

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3129

Abstract

RE₂Ti₂O₇ (RE = Y, Yb, Ho, Er) pyrochlores are very interesting as potential candidates for host materials for applications in transition-metal ions lasers. Y₂Ti₂O₇ crystals were grown by the optical floating zone (OFZ) method. The shape of the growth interface is of paramount importance for the growth of single crystals. As striation and the growth interface have the same shape, we observed the striations in as-grown crystals under polarized light. The degree of overheating of the molten zone influences the shape of the growth interface. An increase of power supplied to the molten zone combined with a decrease of both, thermal conductivity and the amount of heat dissipated by the seed-rod, causes an increase in the degree of overheating of the floating zone. Under a high degree of overheating, the interface of the crystal grown is less convex, with smaller curvature. With the speed of rotation of these crystals decreasing from 30 to 7 rpm, the curvature of striations decreases and the shape of the growth interface changes from convex to less convex, and finally to concave. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method)

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17 pages, 9863 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Single-Crystal Growth of Metallic Rare-Earth Tetraborides by the Floating-Zone Technique

by Daniel Brunt, Monica Ciomaga Hatnean, Oleg A. Petrenko, Martin R. Lees and Geetha Balakrishnan

Crystals 2019, 9(4), 211; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9040211 - 19 Apr 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4189

Abstract

The rare-earth tetraborides are exceptional in that the rare-earth ions are topologically equivalent to the frustrated Shastry-Sutherland lattice. In this paper, we report the growth of large single crystals of RB

_{4}

(where R = Nd, Gd → Tm, and Y) by [...] Read more.

_{4}

(where R = Nd, Gd → Tm, and Y) by the floating-zone method, using a high-power xenon arc-lamp furnace. The crystal boules have been characterized and tested for their quality using X-ray diffraction techniques and temperature- and field-dependent magnetization and AC resistivity measurements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method)

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10 pages, 1421 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Crystal Growth of Quantum Magnets in the Rare-Earth Pyrosilicate Family R₂Si₂O₇ (R = Yb, Er) Using the Optical Floating Zone Method

by Harikrishnan S. Nair, Tim DeLazzer, Tim Reeder, Antony Sikorski, Gavin Hester and Kate A. Ross

Crystals 2019, 9(4), 196; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst9040196 - 07 Apr 2019

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3916

Abstract

We report on the crystal growth of rare-earth pyrosilicates,

R_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

for R = Yb and Er using the optical floating zone method. The grown crystals comprise members from the family of pyrosilicates where the rare-earth atoms form a [...] Read more.

We report on the crystal growth of rare-earth pyrosilicates,

R_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

for R = Yb and Er using the optical floating zone method. The grown crystals comprise members from the family of pyrosilicates where the rare-earth atoms form a distorted honeycomb lattice. C-Yb

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

is a quantum dimer magnet with field-induced long range magnetic order, while D-Er

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

is an Ising-type antiferromagnet. Both growths resulted in multi-crystal boules, with cracks forming between the different crystal orientations. The Yb

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

crystals form the C-type rare-earth pyrosilicate structure with space group

C 2 / m

and are colorless and transparent or milky white, whereas the Er-variant is D-type,

P 2_{1} / b

, and has a pink hue originating from Er

^{3 +}

. The crystal structures of the grown single crystals were confirmed through a Rietveld analysis of the powder X-ray diffraction patterns from pulverized crystals. The specific heat of both C-Yb

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

and D-Er

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

measured down to 50 mK indicated a phase transition at

T_{N} \approx

1.8 K for D-Er

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

and a broad Schottky-type feature with a sharp anomaly at 250 mK in an applied magnetic field of 0.8T along the c-axis in the case of C-Yb

_{2}

_{2}

_{7}

. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Optical Floating Zone and Crystals Grown by this Method)

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