Abstract
Growth of bulk single crystals of electron-doped superconductor Pr 2− x Ce x CuO 4+ δ (Pr-214) by a novel B 2O 3 encapsulated flux technique is reported. Pr-214 crystals have been grown from both platinum and alumina crucibles. While using platinum crucible, flux-creeping problem was completely avoided and for alumina crucible the creeping was considerably reduced. A large surface area crystal of dimension 6×5 mm 2 was found to grow on the surface of the melt. Crystals of limited size (2×2×0.1 mm 3) were observed within the cavities formed in the solidified mass. Observation of the grown crystals under SEM reveals a layer growth pattern, indicative of 2D nucleation mechanism. EDX analysis confirmed the stoichiometry of the grown crystals. No contamination was found in the crystals grown from platinum crucible and a trace amount of Al was detected in the crystals grown from alumina crucible. The segregation coefficient of Ce into the crystal is found to be 60%. Magnetization measurements reveal that the grown crystals are not superconducting even after nitrogen annealing at 900°C for 20 h, probably due to the difficulty in removing the oxygen in thick crystals.
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