High pO2 Floating Zone Crystal Growth of the Perovskite Nickelate PrNiO3

TL;DR

This study successfully grew high-quality PrNiO3 single crystals under high oxygen pressure, revealing the metal-insulator transition at ~130 K and demonstrating the potential of high fugacity environments for growing correlated electron oxides.

Contribution

First demonstration of PrNiO3 single crystal growth under ultra-high oxygen pressure using a specialized floating zone furnace.

Findings

Confirmed first-order metal-insulator transition at ~130 K

Characterized structural and electronic properties of the crystals

Showed high oxygen fugacity enables growth of reactive oxide crystals

Abstract

Single crystals of PrNiO3 were grown under an oxygen pressure of 295 bar using a unique high-pressure optical-image floating zone furnace. The crystals, with volume in excess of 1 mm3, were characterized structurally using single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. Resistivity, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility were measured, all of which evidenced an abrupt, first order metal-insulator transition (MIT) at ~130 K, in agreement with previous literature reports on polycrystalline specimens. Temperature-dependent single crystal diffraction was performed to investigate changes through the MIT. Our study demonstrates the opportunity space for high fugacity, reactive environments for single crystal growth specifically of perovskite nickelates but more generally to correlated electron oxides.