Growth of delafossite CuAlO2 single crystals in a reactive crucible

TL;DR

This paper reports a new reactive crucible melting method for growing high-quality, contamination-free CuAlO2 single crystals of several millimeters, advancing the synthesis of p-type conducting oxides.

Contribution

It introduces a novel reactive crucible technique for producing large, high-quality CuAlO2 single crystals free from flux contamination.

Findings

Successful growth of millimeter-sized CuAlO2 single crystals.

Crystals characterized by X-ray diffraction and microscopy.

Crystals exhibit desirable electrical and magnetic properties.

Abstract

Delafossite oxide CuAlO2 has engaged great attention as a promising p-type conducting oxide. In this work, high-quality CuAlO2 single crystals with a size of several millimeters (mm) are successfully achieved with a reactive crucible melting method. The crystals are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, transport measurement, and magnetic susceptibility measurement. The grown single crystals are free of contamination from a copper oxide flux. This work provides a new approach to growing high-quality delafossite oxide CuAlO2 with a few mm size.