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.

The theoretically predicted magnetic Weyl semimetals RAlGe (R = Pr, Ce) were grown in Paul Scherrer Institute using a HKZ floating zone furnace as well as Al self-flux growth. The authors around group leader Ekaterina Pomjakushina recently published the details on crystal growth and analysis.…

Our first 300 bar OFZ furnace manufactured for Tyrel McQueen Lab at Johns Hopkins University yielded the first paper, published in the 50th Anniversary Issue of the Journal of Solid State Chemistry (Phelan, W. Adam, et al. “Pushing boundaries: High pressure, supercritical optical floating zone…

High pressure crystal growth of nickelates with a ScIDre HKZ furnace again yields a high-impact publication with remarkable results: Nature Communications published in one of its first 2018 papers a study based on the single crystal growth of LaNiO₃ single crystals by the floating…

In a recent publication in PHYSICAL REVIEW MATERIALS 1, scientists from the Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (MPI CPfS) report the growth of centimeter-sized high-quality single crystals of 50 % electron-doped Sr₂RhO₄ (Sr_1.5La_0.5RhO₄),…

Using their HKZ machine, scientists from the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Lab moved on from their highly successful single crystal growth of perovskite nickelate to the investigation of unusual cobalt perovskites. In the Journal of Solid State Chemistry, N. J.…