Effect of Zn doping on crystal growth and structure of the pseudo-ladder compound CaCu2O3

Single-crystal growth of pure and Zn-doped CaCu2O3 by TSFZ method

“…Thus, we have successfully grown large-size CaCu 2 O 3 crystal free of any inclusions. EDXS studies confirmed that the actual composition of the ''CaCu 2 O 3 '' crystal is Ca 0.86 Cu 2.14 O 3Àd and the existence of a solid solution Ca 1Ày Cu 2+y O 3Àd with a narrow homogeneity range of y from 0.136 to 0.169 [4].…”

“…These difficulties were overcome to a large extent by choosing (a) CuO-poor composition to form solvent (CaO:CuO ¼ 2:1), and (b) by carrying out the growth under enhanced oxygen pressure (6-7 bar) with a pulling rate of 1 mm/h. It is remarkable that the optimum solvent-forming composition deviates much from the estimated one based on the reported equilibrium phase diagram [4]. A possible explanation is as follows.…”

“…However, with increasing Zn-content (x ¼ 0.14), the melt-zone between the feed and growing crystal boule became unstable after about a 20-30-mm-long boule was grown. This is possibly due to the ''CaO'' enrichment in the melt as a part of ''Zn'' occupy the Ca-site in addition to Cu-site [4]. Fig.…”

“…The crystallization field available for crystal growth of CaCu 2 O 3 is rather very narrow with respect to both the temperature and composition range [4]. In addition, the thermal stability of CaCu 2 O 3 is poor.…”

The low-dimensional spin magnet CaCu2O3 probed by high-field ESR

“…Growth of the crystals and their characterization is described in Ref. [5]. A substantial Ca deficiency and a respective excess of Cu residing near Ca-sites is observed in both crystals.…”