Scientists from the Heidelberg University, mainly Kirchhoff-Institute for Physics, recently published their highly successful experiments in growing large, mm-sized single crystals of Li(Mn,Fe)PO4 at elevated argon pressure using the ScIDre HKZ furnace. High-quality single crystalline samples of olivine-structured orthophosphates LiMPO4 M = (Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) are much sought-after, since they enable detailed investigations and a deeper understanding of the principles of lithium exchange in this material with strong potentials for future electrochemical energy storage applications.
The vertical setup concept of the HKZ furnace allowed the authors to specifically optimize the light intensity profile for each doping composition, ensuring a convex melt zone interface for the growth of large single crystalline grains. Using the pyrometric temperature measuring system, the zone temperature and the temperature gradients could be investigated in detail and kept at optimal levels for each compound during the growth process.
We are very happy to see the capabilities of the HKZ furnace exploited to full capacity and published within this beautiful paper. Congratulations to the authors!
