While the mechanism of the insulator-metal transition in rare-earth perovskite nickelates is still under debate, LaNiO₃ does not undergo this kind of transition und thus stands out as having particular importance in nickelate research. The floating zone crystal growth of LaNiO_3−δ conducted by different research groups lead to very different conclusions from the observed features…

In order to understand the origin and mechanism of the pronounced magnetodielectric coupling in NiTiO₃, researchers from Heidelbergs Kirchoff Institute of Physics grew large, high-quality single crystals of this compound by means of the optical floating-zone technique (ScIDre HKZ two-mirror vertical configuration optical furnace and a four-mirror horizontal configuration) under various…

Resulting from the recent observation of superconductivity in Nd_1-xSr_xNiO₂ the interest in the infinite-layer RNiO₂ (R = La, Nd) compounds revived. Since experimental reports into RNiO₂ compounds are quite limited,

Recently, Scientists of the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS) found a new compound in the scientificly interesting group of ruthenates. They report on the single crystal growth of Ba₂₆Ru₁₂O₅₇ enabled with…

The sought-after mechanism of metal-to-metal transition in the Ruddlesden-Popper phase La₄Ni₃O₁₀ could be revealed after 25 years of research in a recent publication. Combining single crystal synchrotron X-ray and neutron diffraction, coupled charge and spin order superlattices could…

Motivated by structural similarities with the Cu-O layers in high-temperature superconductors, the compound Pr₄Ni₃O₁₀, featuring quasi-2D Ni-O layers, was investigated as part of a cooperation between several swiss research facililties. The single-crystal growth was performed by means of the optical floating-zone method at an oxygen pressure of  about 140 bar using…

A single crystal of europium doped YSH was grown by the optical floating zone method for the first time. The scientists of the Shanghai University grew the crystal with a nominal composition of Hf_0.86Y_0.13Eu_0.01O_1.93 under air atmosphere in a vertical double-ellipsoid mirror furnace (SciDre HKZ), equipped…

Our cooperation project with Augsburg University yielded beside the new instrument “Feedback Furnace” for flux crystal growth a first joint paper, published together with Andreas Schneider and Anton Jesche: In Situ Detection of Nucleation in High-Temperature Solutions

Another member of the perovskite nickelates family PrNiO₃ was succesfully grown as single crystal with a ScIDre HKZ furnace. Mainly executed by scientists from Argonne National Laboratory, the growth was performed in the PARADIM lab at Johns Hopkins University under oxygen pressures of 295 bar. Previous attemts to grow this crystals using our 150 bar floating zone furnace were unsuccessful,…

Sought-after single crystals of LaNiO₃ were grown recently at the Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Heidelberg University by means of the optical floating-zone method at oxygen pressures of 40 and 80 bar using a ScIDre HKZ furnace. The magnetic analysis of the samples indicates that long-range magnetic order is not intrinsic and most likely arising due to oxygen deficient phases.