Abstract
This article reviews recent achievements on the crystal growth of a new series of pyrochlore oxides—lanthanide zirconates, which are frustrated magnets with exotic magnetic properties. Oxides of the type A 2 B 2 O 7 (where A = Rare Earth, B = Ti, Mo) have been successfully synthesised in single crystal form using the floating zone method. The main difficulty of employing this technique for the growth of rare earth zirconium oxides A 2 Zr 2 O 7 arises from the high melting point of these materials. This drawback has been recently overcome by the use of a high power Xenon arc lamp furnace for the growth of single crystals of Pr 2 Zr 2 O 7 . Subsequently, large, high quality single crystals of several members of the zirconate family of pyrochlore oxides A 2 Zr 2 O 7 (with A = La → Gd) have been grown by the floating zone technique. In this work, the authors give an overview of the crystal growth of lanthanide zirconates. The optimum conditions used for the floating zone growth of A 2 Zr 2 O 7 crystals are reported. The characterisation of the crystal boules and their crystal quality is also presented.
Highlights
Pyrochlore oxides have been the subject of extensive investigations due to their fascinating magnetic properties, such as spin ice [1,2], spin glass [3,4], spin liquid [5], or long-range magnetic ordered states [6]
A recent study of the Pr2 Zr2 O7 pyrochlore demonstrated the feasibility of producing large crystals of this frustrated magnet [23], and pointed to the possibility of producing crystals of other members of the rare earth zirconate pyrochlore oxides by the floating zone technique
In addition to the structural phase transition occurring at high temperature, recent studies have shown that the lanthanide zirconate with a pyrochlore structure are not stable at high pressure and that they undergo a pressure induced structural transformation leading to either a monoclinic phase [36,37], or a defect cotunnite-type structure [38]
Summary
Pyrochlore oxides have been the subject of extensive investigations due to their fascinating magnetic properties, such as spin ice [1,2], spin glass [3,4], spin liquid [5], or long-range magnetic ordered states [6]. Large single crystals of the rare-earth titanate pyrochlores A32` Ti2 O7 (where A “ Pr, Nd, Sm, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Y) were grown for the first time by the floating zone technique [10,11]. Recent studies have pointed out that strong quantum fluctuations and spin ice correlations may coexist at finite temperature in some pyrochlore materials, due to a reduced magnetic moment on the rare earth A site [18,19]. A recent study of the Pr2 Zr2 O7 pyrochlore demonstrated the feasibility of producing large crystals of this frustrated magnet [23], and pointed to the possibility of producing crystals of other members of the rare earth zirconate pyrochlore oxides by the floating zone technique. Single crystals of several members of the A2 Zr2 O7 (with A “ La Ñ Gd) family have since been successfully obtained [20,21,22,24]
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