Single Crystal Growth at Warwick
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The study of materials is of fundamental importance to the development of modern day technologies. Advances are only possible because of the efforts of materials physicists and chemists who drive this progress, first discovering new materials and then continually improving the material's properties, and therefore their performance, to enable their use in key industrial applications.
In order to optimize the figure of merit of many materials, it is important to carry out detailed investigations on high quality single crystals of the materials. Without single crystals, it is often not possible to understand the underlying physics of a material. Single crystal growth is therefore of strategic importance, allowing us to work at the forefront of investigations of the physics of condensed matter.
The proposed programme will be carried out within the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group, which is a well-established centre with all the necessary expertise and equipment for both the production of high quality crystals, and the investigation of the properties of, a wide range of new and exotic materials.
In the proposed project, high quality single crystals of oxides, selenides, silicides, borides, and intermetallics will be grown in single crystal form. Target materials include various low-dimensional and frustrated magnets; exotic superconductors; 2D, layered, and magnetic cleavable materials for heterostructures ; topological insulators. The studies of these crystals in the laboratory, complemented by those at central facilities using techniques such as neutron and x-ray scattering, muon spectroscopy, as well as ARPES and measurements in high magnetic fields, will enable a unified picture of the physics of the materials to be developed.
For crystal growth by the floating zone technique, we will use the three different optical mirror furnaces that we have at Warwick (two halogen lamp furnaces and one xenon arc lamp furnace). The optical mirror furnaces allow us to grow crystals under different growth conditions including various gas atmospheres, in pressures of up to 10 bars and at temperatures of up to 3000 degrees C. A proposed upgrade to one of these furnaces will enable it operate at a maximum of 40 bars pressure. Other techniques such as flux growth, Bridgman growth and chemical vapour transport are also available for use for the crystal growth of certain materials, while the Czochralski technique will be used to produce single crystals of intermetallic materials using a tetra-arc furnace.
The crystal growth activity intends to continue to support the existing wide collaborative network that has been built up over many years, and to attract new collaborations. We expect the whole of the UK materials and physics community, as well as many international scientists, to benefit from our work and the provision of high quality single crystal samples.
In order to optimize the figure of merit of many materials, it is important to carry out detailed investigations on high quality single crystals of the materials. Without single crystals, it is often not possible to understand the underlying physics of a material. Single crystal growth is therefore of strategic importance, allowing us to work at the forefront of investigations of the physics of condensed matter.
The proposed programme will be carried out within the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group, which is a well-established centre with all the necessary expertise and equipment for both the production of high quality crystals, and the investigation of the properties of, a wide range of new and exotic materials.
In the proposed project, high quality single crystals of oxides, selenides, silicides, borides, and intermetallics will be grown in single crystal form. Target materials include various low-dimensional and frustrated magnets; exotic superconductors; 2D, layered, and magnetic cleavable materials for heterostructures ; topological insulators. The studies of these crystals in the laboratory, complemented by those at central facilities using techniques such as neutron and x-ray scattering, muon spectroscopy, as well as ARPES and measurements in high magnetic fields, will enable a unified picture of the physics of the materials to be developed.
For crystal growth by the floating zone technique, we will use the three different optical mirror furnaces that we have at Warwick (two halogen lamp furnaces and one xenon arc lamp furnace). The optical mirror furnaces allow us to grow crystals under different growth conditions including various gas atmospheres, in pressures of up to 10 bars and at temperatures of up to 3000 degrees C. A proposed upgrade to one of these furnaces will enable it operate at a maximum of 40 bars pressure. Other techniques such as flux growth, Bridgman growth and chemical vapour transport are also available for use for the crystal growth of certain materials, while the Czochralski technique will be used to produce single crystals of intermetallic materials using a tetra-arc furnace.
The crystal growth activity intends to continue to support the existing wide collaborative network that has been built up over many years, and to attract new collaborations. We expect the whole of the UK materials and physics community, as well as many international scientists, to benefit from our work and the provision of high quality single crystal samples.
Planned Impact
The study of new materials, understanding their physics and learning how to control or modify their properties, underpins the progress made in their use in devices, fuelling improvements made in present-day technological applications. The impact of the results obtained from a research project such as the one proposed here, on topical, interesting, exotic, and functional materials, should not be underestimated.
There are short-term, medium-term, and long-term impacts of the research outputs of this programme.
Short Term
As the work described in this proposal is fundamental in nature, the short-term impact will be most strongly felt in the academic research community with (a) the crystals produced being available for wider investigations by the academic community as described under academic beneficiaries; (b) early career researchers and students being trained and exposed to state of the art materials synthesis techniques, and having access to the high quality single crystals produced; (c) the interaction between theorists and experimentalists allowing new theoretical models to be tested and allowing theorists to suggest which new materials hold the greatest promise for future investigations.
Short and Medium Term
Here, the impact of the proposed work will be seen in the provision of well-trained research personnel to fill scientific positions; research and development scientists in industry; academic posts in universities; instrument scientists at international facilities providing access to neutrons, muons, and x-rays.
The project will help us to build collaborative links with new industrial partners. These interactions can help industrial partners solve one-off problems or lead to longer term partnerships that increase the competitiveness of UK business.
Medium to Long Term
The impact of the study of these materials in the advanced technology industrial sector should be viewed as being applicable in the medium to long-term, where it is expected to be potentially rather significant. The functional materials (and heterostructures built from combining the materials) under study could find uses in many different applications, including in superconducting devices, spintronics, magnetic sensors, lasers, as magnetic refrigerants, as substrates, and as thermoelectrics.
There are many examples of materials similar to those we propose to study here, which were once primarily the focus of fundamental research, that have since been used in applications. These include the high temperature superconductors now used in high field magnets and superconducting devices, and oxide materials now used in fuels cells and batteries.
Our collaborators are planning the fabrication and investigation of heterostructures utilising the 2D layered and topological materials produced in this project , the results of which may eventually be exploited for the design and preparation of next generation devices. Our work on pyrochlore oxides has led to the subsequent exploration by other scientists of their eventual use for the storage of nuclear waste (the zirconates in particular). These examples demonstrate our continued commitment to keep our crystal growth research relevant for the benefit of society in general.
There are short-term, medium-term, and long-term impacts of the research outputs of this programme.
Short Term
As the work described in this proposal is fundamental in nature, the short-term impact will be most strongly felt in the academic research community with (a) the crystals produced being available for wider investigations by the academic community as described under academic beneficiaries; (b) early career researchers and students being trained and exposed to state of the art materials synthesis techniques, and having access to the high quality single crystals produced; (c) the interaction between theorists and experimentalists allowing new theoretical models to be tested and allowing theorists to suggest which new materials hold the greatest promise for future investigations.
Short and Medium Term
Here, the impact of the proposed work will be seen in the provision of well-trained research personnel to fill scientific positions; research and development scientists in industry; academic posts in universities; instrument scientists at international facilities providing access to neutrons, muons, and x-rays.
The project will help us to build collaborative links with new industrial partners. These interactions can help industrial partners solve one-off problems or lead to longer term partnerships that increase the competitiveness of UK business.
Medium to Long Term
The impact of the study of these materials in the advanced technology industrial sector should be viewed as being applicable in the medium to long-term, where it is expected to be potentially rather significant. The functional materials (and heterostructures built from combining the materials) under study could find uses in many different applications, including in superconducting devices, spintronics, magnetic sensors, lasers, as magnetic refrigerants, as substrates, and as thermoelectrics.
There are many examples of materials similar to those we propose to study here, which were once primarily the focus of fundamental research, that have since been used in applications. These include the high temperature superconductors now used in high field magnets and superconducting devices, and oxide materials now used in fuels cells and batteries.
Our collaborators are planning the fabrication and investigation of heterostructures utilising the 2D layered and topological materials produced in this project , the results of which may eventually be exploited for the design and preparation of next generation devices. Our work on pyrochlore oxides has led to the subsequent exploration by other scientists of their eventual use for the storage of nuclear waste (the zirconates in particular). These examples demonstrate our continued commitment to keep our crystal growth research relevant for the benefit of society in general.
Publications
Arumugam S
(2020)
Investigation of the transport, magnetic and flux pinning properties of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor TaRh2B2 under hydrostatic pressure
in Physica C: Superconductivity and its Applications
Bigi C
(2023)
Covalency, correlations, and interlayer interactions governing the magnetic and electronic structure of Mn 3 Si 2 Te 6
in Physical Review B
Birch M
(2020)
Anisotropy-induced depinning in the Zn-substituted skyrmion host Cu 2 O Se O 3
in Physical Review B
Biswas P
(2020)
Coexistence of type-I and type-II superconductivity signatures in Zr B 12 probed by muon spin rotation measurements
in Physical Review B
Biswas PK
(2021)
Chiral singlet superconductivity in the weakly correlated metal LaPt3P.
in Nature communications
Biswas, Pabitra K.
(2021)
Chiral singlet superconductivity in the weakly correlated metal LaPt3P
Breeze T
(2025)
Muon spectroscopy investigation of anomalous dynamic magnetism in NiI 2
in Physical Review B
Buchsteiner P
(2020)
Surface analysis of the Pr B 6 (001) cleavage plane by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy
in Physical Review B
Cameron A
(2022)
Singlet-triplet mixing in the order parameter of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor Ru 7 B 3
in Physical Review B
Carpenter MA
(2021)
Strain relaxation dynamics of multiferroic orthorhombic manganites.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Cassemiro G
(2024)
Role of native point defects and Hg impurities in the electronic properties of Bi 4 I 4
in Physical Review B
Ciomaga Hatnean M
(2020)
Crystal Growth by the Floating Zone Method of Ce-Substituted Crystals of the Topological Kondo Insulator SmB6
in Crystals
Ciomaga Hatnean M
(2020)
Optical Floating Zone Crystal Growth of Rare-Earth Disilicates, R 2 Si 2 O 7 (R = Er, Ho, and Tm)
in Crystal Growth & Design
Edwards B
(2024)
Chemical Trends of the Bulk and Surface Termination-Dependent Electronic Structure of Metal-Intercalated Transition Metal Dichalcogenides.
in Chemistry of materials : a publication of the American Chemical Society
Eo Y
(2020)
Comprehensive surface magnetotransport study of SmB 6
in Physical Review B
Eo Y
(2021)
Bulk transport paths through defects in floating zone and Al flux grown SmB 6
in Physical Review Materials
Farrar LS
(2021)
Superconducting Quantum Interference in Twisted van der Waals Heterostructures.
in Nano letters
Franke K
(2019)
Investigating the magnetic ground state of the skyrmion host material Cu2OSeO3 using long-wavelength neutron diffraction
in AIP Advances
Gardner J
(2020)
Obituary for Professor Donald McKenzie Paul, physicist
in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
Gracia-Abad R
(2024)
FIB-fabrication of superconducting devices based on Bi2Se3 junctions
in Scientific Reports
Guarino A
(2024)
Bismuth chalcogenide topological insulators crystals grown by the optical floating zone technique
in Journal of Crystal Growth
Hartstein M
(2020)
Intrinsic Bulk Quantum Oscillations in a Bulk Unconventional Insulator SmB6
in iScience
Hicken T
(2021)
Megahertz dynamics in skyrmion systems probed with muon-spin relaxation
in Physical Review B
Holt S
(2020)
Structure and magnetism of the skyrmion hosting family GaV 4 S 8 - y Se y with low levels of substitutions between 0 = y = 0.5 and 7.5 = y = 8
in Physical Review Materials
Islam M
(2023)
Frustrated Magnet Mn3Al2Ge3O12 Garnet: Crystal Growth by the Optical Floating Zone Method
in Crystals
Islam M
(2024)
Magnetic structure, excitations, and field-induced transitions in the honeycomb lattice compound Er 2 Si 2 O 7
in Physical Review B
Krieger J
(2023)
Hydrogen-impurity-induced unconventional magnetism in semiconducting molybdenum ditelluride
in Physical Review Materials
Kumar S
(2020)
Torque magnetometry study of the spin reorientation transition and temperature-dependent magnetocrystalline anisotropy in NdCo5.
in Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal
Kumar S
(2020)
Tunability of the spin reorientation transitions with pressure in NdCo5
in Applied Physics Letters
Lançon D
(2020)
Evolution of field-induced metastable phases in the Shastry-Sutherland lattice magnet TmB 4
in Physical Review B
Li P
(2023)
Photoemission signature of the competition between magnetic order and Kondo effect in CeCoGe 3
in Physical Review B
Littlehales M
(2024)
Spin density waves and ground state helices in EuGa 2.4 Al 1.6
in Physical Review Research
Littlehales M
(2024)
Demonstration of Controlled Skyrmion Injection Across a Thickness Step
in Nano Letters
Liu H
(2022)
f-electron hybridised Fermi surface in magnetic field-induced metallic YbB12
in npj Quantum Materials
LĂ©ger M
(2024)
Impact of disorder in Nd-based pyrochlore magnets
in Physical Review B
LĂ©ger M
(2024)
Impact of disorder in Nd-based pyrochlore magnets
LĂ©ger M
(2021)
Field-temperature phase diagram of the enigmatic Nd 2 ( Zr 1 - x Ti x ) 2 O 7 pyrochlore magnets
in Physical Review B
| Description | Several single crystals of exotic and functional materials have been produced and studied. The single crystals obtained have been investigated for their properties by us and by several collaborating research groups. PhD students and PDRAs have been trained. |
| Exploitation Route | Beneficiaries have access to all our published papers and conference presentations. They can also get in touch regarding the crystals produced if they are required for their experiments. |
| Sectors | Chemicals Education Electronics Energy |
| URL | http://go.warwick.ac.uk/supermag |
| Description | The publications have been read by some industrial sectors and I have been approached by them for some possible collabotaive projects. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2021 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Electronics |
| Title | Anisotropic Skyrmion and Multi-q Spin Dynamics in Centrosymmetric Gd2PdSi3: Data and Code |
| Description | Data and code from the paper: M. Gomilšek et al., Anisotropic Skyrmion and Multi-q Spin Dynamics in Centrosymmetric Gd2PdSi3, to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett. Please refer to the paper for more information.Within the zipped file, data and code are organized into folders by figure names.File formats:*.py ... Python script file *.dat, [no extension] ... ASCII data file. Specifically, ZFC_*.dat are Quantum Design MPMS3 measurement data files *.oggu, *.opju ... OriginPro 2021 files (window and project files, respectively; https://www.originlab.com/) *.png ... PNG image file *.fit, *.mgp ... WiMDA files (fit and detector-grouping files, respectively; http://shadow.nd.rl.ac.uk/wimda/) *.txt, *.out ... ASCII text file *.rtf ... Rich text format file *.tgz ... Compressed tar gzip file *.zip ... Compressed zip file *.docx ... Microsoft Word file (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/word) *.mon ... Temperature monitor data from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Swiss Muon Source (SmuS) (GPS and HAL-9500 instruments) *.pptx ... Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/powerpoint/) *.pkl ... Python pickle format. Specifically, the saved state of MuFinder (https://gitlab.com/BenHuddart/mufinder/) *.cif ... crystallographic information file *.vesta ... VESTA crystal visualization file (https://jp-minerals.org/vesta/en/) *.castep, *.cell ... CASTEP 22.1 output files (main output files and final crystal geometry files, respectively; https://www.castep.org/) *.nb ... Wolfram Mathematica 13.0 notebook (https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/) File formats within compressed files:*.ascii, *.bin ... Raw muon measurement data from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Swiss Muon Source (SmuS) (GPS instrument) *.log, *.nxs, *.nxs_v2, *.RAW ... Raw muon measurement data from the ISIS pulsed muon source (HiFi instrument) *.mdu ... Raw muon measurement data from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) Swiss Muon Source (SmuS) (HAL-9500 instrument) |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Anisotropic_Skyrmion_and_Multi-_i_q_i_Spin_Dynamics_in_Centros... |
| Title | Chemical trends of the bulk and surface termination-dependent electronic structure of metal-intercalated transition metal dichalcogenides (dataset) |
| Description | |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/datasets/chemical-trends-of-the-bulk-and-surface-termina... |
| Title | Dataset for "Superconducting Quantum Interference in Twisted van der Waals Heterostructures" |
| Description | The dataset represents the results of electrical measurement that underpin the figures in the main manuscript and supplementary materials of "Superconducting Quantum Interference in Twisted van der Waals Heterostructures" Nano Lett. 2021, 21, 6725-6731. This manuscript describes the use of dry stamping technologies to create 2H-NbSe2 van der Waals heterostructures with twisted interfaces. We show that these behave as Josephson junctions whose I-V characteristics depend systematically on twist angle. We have developed a fabrication protocol to pattern these into Superconducting QUantum Interferometer Device (SQUID) structures containing two junctions coupled in a superconducting loop, and show that these behave as high quality DC SQUIDs with high current modulation levels in an applied an magnetic field. The archived data represent current-voltage characteristics of our Josephson Junctions and SQUIDs as a function of temperature, magnetic field and twist angle. These have been captured to establish the damping regime the junctions are operating in and to characterise the performance of SQUIDs fabricated from them. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://researchdata.bath.ac.uk/id/eprint/1090 |