Single Crystal Growth at Warwick

材料的研究对现代技术的发展具有根本的重要性。材料物理学家和化学家的努力推动了这一进步，他们首先发现新材料，然后不断改进材料的性能，从而使其能够在关键的工业应用中使用。为了优化许多材料的性能，对材料的高质量单晶进行详细的研究是很重要的。没有单晶，通常不可能理解材料的基本物理性质。因此，单晶生长具有重要的战略意义，使我们能够站在凝聚态物理研究的最前沿。该计划将在超导和磁性集团内进行，超导和磁性集团是一个成熟的中心，拥有生产高质量晶体和研究各种新型和外来材料性质所需的所有专业知识和设备。在该项目中，将以单晶形式生长高质量的氧化物、硒化物、硅化物、硼化物和金属间化合物的单晶。目标材料包括各种低维和受挫磁铁；异国情调的超导体;用于异质结构的二维、层状和磁性可切割材料；拓扑绝缘体。在实验室对这些晶体进行的研究，加上在中心设施使用诸如中子和x射线散射、介子光谱学以及ARPES和高磁场测量等技术进行的研究，将能够对这些材料的物理特性形成统一的认识。为了通过浮区技术生长晶体，我们将使用沃里克大学的三个不同的光学反射炉（两个卤素灯炉和一个氙弧灯炉）。光学镜像炉使我们能够在不同的生长条件下生长晶体，包括各种气体气氛，在高达10巴的压力和高达3000摄氏度的温度下。建议升级到其中一个炉将使其在最高40巴的压力下运行。其他技术，如助熔剂生长、布里奇曼生长和化学蒸气输送也可用于某些材料的晶体生长，而乔克拉尔斯基技术将用于使用四弧炉生产金属间材料的单晶。晶体生长活动旨在继续支持已经建立多年的现有广泛的合作网络，并吸引新的合作。我们期望整个英国材料和物理界，以及许多国际科学家，从我们的工作和提供高质量的单晶样品中受益。

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.