The group of Stephen Wilson from University of California, Santa Barbara, recently demonstrated floating zone crystal growth at 700 bar gas pressure. In a recent Review of Scientific Instruments publication the authors present a second-generation design of the high-pressure laser floating zone furnace, “Laser Optical Kristallmacher II” (LOKII), featuring two ScIDre pulling drives which were specifically…

High-quality single crystals of trilayer nickelate La₄Ni₃O₁₀ were grown at Sun Yat-Sen University in a HKZ furnace at 20 bar oxygen pressure. The samples were used to determine the atomic structure and perform transport measurements under a pressure of up to 44.3 GPa, as the atomic and electronic structure is fundamental to the understanding superconductivity. A…

Researchers from Heidelbergs Kirchoff Institute of Physics investigated the magnetization process down to the mK-regime and the magnetic phase diagrams of the hexagonal perovskite rare earth oxide GdInO₃. To compensate the heavy volatilization of In₂O₃ the single crystals were grown under an oxygen pressure of 30 bar using the ScIDre optical floating zone furnace…

Another significant discovery has been made in the currently very popular and rapidly evolving field of Ruddlesden-Popper Nickelates. Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory have discovered a new polymorph of the RP phase La₃Ni₂O₇. Boules of this polymorph, which were grown under high oxygen pressure with a ScIDre optical floating zone furnace HKZ-150 at 13 to…

Rare-earth nickelates are becoming more and more the focus of research since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in infinite-layer and Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) bilayer nickelates. For exploration of the underlying mechanism of potential superconductivity, the trilayer RP compound La₄Ni₃O₁₀ is ideal, as it maintains its metallic character at low temperatures…

Since the discovery of superconducting behavior in hole-doped rare-earth nickelates with an infinite-layer crystal structure Ruddlesden–Popper nickelates R_n+1Ni_nO_3n+1 have increasingly become the focus of research again in recent years. However, growing larger single crystals in this class of compounds posed a major experimental challenge. The use of the high-oxygen…

Recently, Scientists of the Max-Planck-Institute CPfS found a new compound in the scientificly interesting group of ruthenates. Y₂MgRuO₆, a new double perovskite, was grown with a ScIDre HKZ mirror furnace under an O2/Ar atmosphere of 10 bar. As is typical for ruthenates, the strong evaporation of RuO2 is what makes the synthesis experimentally challenging.

Although…

All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries are superior to conventional lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy density and safety risks and are currently of interest in battery research. For the investigation of solid-state Li-ion conductors a single-crystal state of the materials is preferable.

The study shows the growth of Li_5.5La₃Nb_1.5Z_r0.5O₁₂,…

We are thrilled to see yet another remarkable article on crystal growth of nickelates published some days ago by Kirchhoff Institute of Physics scientists from Heidelberg University. The quasi-two-dimensional Ruddlesden–Popper trilayer phase La₄Ni₃O₁₀ exhibits an exciting mixture of Ni²⁺ and Ni³⁺ ions and an unusual metal-to-metal transition,…

Nickelates with different valence states of the Ni ions are increasingly becoming the focus of cutting-edge research in solid-state physics. Recent discoveries of superconductivity in thin films and bulk crystals have fueled the synthesis and investigation efforts of these compounds. Achieving stabilization of the Ni³⁺ valence state in LaNiO3 requires high partial pressure of oxygen for…