Single crystal growth from light, volatile, and reactive materials using lithium and calcium flux

Abstract

We present a method for the solution growth of single crystals from reactive Li and Ca melts and its application to the synthesis of several, representative compounds. Among these, single crystalline Li3N, Li2(Li{1-x}Tx)N with T = {Mn, Fe, Co}, LiCaN, Li2C2, LiRh, and LiIr from Li-rich flux as well as Ca2N, CaNi2, CaNi3, YbNi2, Y2Ni7, and LaNi5 from Ca-rich flux could be obtained. Special emphasize is given on the growth of nitrides using commercially available Li3N and Ca3N2 powders as the nitrogen source instead of N2 gas.

40 pages, 20 figures, reference list updated