Abstract
Flux crystal growth has been widely applied to explore new phases and grow crystals of emerging materials. To accommodate the needs of high-quality single crystals, the flux crystal growth should be reliable, controllable, and predictable. The selections of suitable flux and growth conditions remain empirical due to the lack of systematic investigation especially for reactions, which involve highly volatile components, such as P and As. Considering the flux elements, often the system in question is a quaternary or a higher multinary system, which drastically increases complexity. In this manuscript, on the examples of flux growth of phosphides and arsenides, guidelines of flux selections, existing challenges, and future directions are discussed. We expect that the field will be further developed by applying in situ techniques and computational modeling of the nucleation and growth kinetics. Additionally, leveraging variables other than temperature, such as applied pressure, will make flux growth a more powerful tool in the future.
Highlights
The fundamental research goals of solid state chemistry, materials science, and condensed matter physics are to establish correlations between crystal structure and physical properties (Pamplin, 1980; Kanatzidis et al, 2005; The National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine, 2009)
One of the options is to grow crystals from a high-temperature molten media, flux, which is widely used for growth of different intermetallic, semiconducting, and insulating compounds of diverse chemical nature ranging from oxides and halides to metal alloys (Pamplin, 1980; Canfield and Fisk, 1991; Kanatzidis et al, 2005; Bugaris and zur Loye, 2012; Phelan et al, 2012; Juillerat et al, 2019; Canfield, 2020)
The art of flux crystal growth is a combination of science and technology
Summary
The fundamental research goals of solid state chemistry, materials science, and condensed matter physics are to establish correlations between crystal structure and physical properties (Pamplin, 1980; Kanatzidis et al, 2005; The National Academies of Sciences Engineering Medicine, 2009). Basic considerations for flux choice involve three aspects: solubility of reactants in flux, reaction path, and nucleation and growth of the target crystals (Figure 1, bottom). Low solubility of the reactants and the target phase will prevent chemical reactions and crystal growth.
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