Ultra-high vacuum compatible preparation chain for intermetallic compounds

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive ultra-high vacuum compatible preparation chain for synthesizing high-purity intermetallic compounds, enabling handling of air-sensitive elements and high vapor pressure materials with improved control.

Contribution

It introduces a versatile, all-metal sealed preparation chain with multiple furnaces and load-locks for high-purity, inert atmosphere synthesis of intermetallic compounds, including single-crystal growth.

Findings

Successful synthesis of CeNi2Ge2 single crystals.

High-purity environment enabled handling of air-sensitive elements.

Ultra-high vacuum conditions proved essential for high vapor pressure compounds.

Abstract

We report the development of a versatile material preparation chain for intermetallic compounds that focuses on the realization of a high-purity growth environment. The preparation chain comprises of an argon glovebox, an inductively heated horizontal cold boat furnace, an arc melting furnace, an inductively heated rod casting furnace, an optically heated floating-zone furnace, a resistively heated annealing furnace, and an inductively heated annealing furnace. The cold boat furnace and the arc melting furnace may be loaded from the glovebox by means of a load-lock permitting to synthesize compounds starting with air-sensitive elements while handling the constituents exclusively in an inert gas atmosphere. All furnaces are all-metal sealed, bakeable, and may be pumped to ultra-high vacuum. We find that the latter represents an important prerequisite for handling compounds with high vapor pressure under high-purity argon atmosphere. We illustrate operational aspects of the preparation chain in terms of the single-crystal growth of the heavy-fermion compound CeNi2Ge2.