Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol.265, No.3-4, 571-576, 2004
Single crystal growth and characterization of a layered transition metal pnictide oxide: Na2Ti2Sb2O
Single crystals of Na2Ti2Sb2O have been grown by NaSb flux method. It crystallizes in platelet morphology with dark silver color. The growth conditions are optimized and crystal structure has been analyzed by single crystal X-ray diffraction at 88.7, 120.0 and 150.0 K. The structure analysis result shows that there is a non-linear change in temperature-dependent lattice parameters suggesting that previously reported anomaly in temperature-dependent magnetization and electrical resistivity of polycrystalline samples around 120 K is associated with the structure distortion. Temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility of a single crystal sample grown by NaSb flux method also exhibits a sharp transition around 120 K confirming that this anomaly is intrinsic to Na2Ti2Sb2O. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.