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Crystal growth of the intermetallic compound Nd 2 PdSi 3
Author(s) -
Xu Y.,
Löser W.,
Tang F.,
Blum C. G. F.,
Liu L.,
Büchner B.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
crystal research and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.377
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1521-4079
pISSN - 0232-1300
DOI - 10.1002/crat.201000653
Subject(s) - intermetallic , liquidus , zone melting , stoichiometry , curie temperature , crystallography , crystal growth , anisotropy , crystal (programming language) , materials science , single crystal , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , condensed matter physics , metallurgy , ferromagnetism , optics , programming language , physics , alloy , chromatography , computer science
Nd 2 PdSi 3 single crystals were grown by a vertical floating zone method with radiation heating at a zone traveling rate of 3 mm/h. The compound exhibits congruent melting behavior at a liquidus temperature of about 1790 °C. The actual crystal composition (35.3 ± 0.5) at.% Nd, (16.2 ± 0.5) at.% Pd, and (48.5 ± 0.5) at.% Si is slightly depleted in Pd and Si with respect to the nominal stoichiometry. Therefore, the gradual accumulation of these elements in the traveling zone led to a decrease of the operating temperature during the growth process. Single crystalline samples exhibit a large anisotropy due to the crystal electric field effect and order ferromagnetically below the Curie temperature T C = 15.1 K. The [001] orientation was identified as the magnetic easy axis at low temperatures. (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)