Abstract
The growth of YBa2Cu4O8 single crystals was performed using KOH flux under ambient pressure. By testing five sorts of cruciblematerial, ZrO2 and Al2O3 are found to be suitable for the growth. A stepwise-cooling method was applied to increasethe size of the crystals. The as-grown crystals could be separated from the residual flux bymethanol solvent. The crystals showed a plate-like morphology with dimensions1.2 × 0.5 × 0.3 mm3. Study of the structure in the (001) plane indicated that the formation of the crystal occurredby a two-dimensional nucleation or spiral growth mechanism, depending on the supersaturationof the solution. Defects in the crystals were revealed by etching, which exhibited aninteresting feature of etch pits with an orthorhombic structure consisting of {001}, {100} and{010} faces. The superconducting property of the crystals shows very sharp transition at aTc of 82.9 K.
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