Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol.475, 10-20, 2017
Czochralski growth of LaPd2Al2 single crystals
The present study is focused on the preparation of single crystalline LaPd2Al2 by the Czochralski method. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses reveal that LaPd2Al2 is an incongruently melting phase which causes difficulties for the preparation of single crystalline LaPd2Al2 by the Czochralski method. Therefore several non-stoichiometric polycrystalline samples were studied for its preparation. Finally the successful growth of LaPd2Al2 without foreign phases has been achieved by using a non-stoichiometric precursor with atomic composition 22:39: 9 (La:Pd:Al). X-ray powder diffraction, EDX analysis and DSC were used for the characterisation. A single crystalline sample was separated from the ingot prepared by the Czochralski method using the non-stoichiometric precursor. The presented procedure for the preparation of pure single phase LaPd2Al2 could be modified for other incongruently melting phases. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords:LaPd2Al2;Unconventional superconductivity;Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC);Czochralski method;X-ray diffraction;Single crystal growth