Li non-stoichiometry and crystal growth of untwinned 1D quantum spin system Lix Cu2 O2
Abstract
Floating-zone growth of untwinned single crystal of LixCu2O2 with high Li content of x ~ 0.99 is reported. Li content of LixCu2O2 has been determined accurately through combined iodometric titration and thermogravimetric methods, which also ruled out the speculation of chemical disorder between Li and Cu ions. The morphology and physical properties of single crystals obtained from slowing-cooling (SL) and floating-zone (FZ) methods are compared. The floating-zone growth under Ar/O2=7:1 gas mixture at 0.64 MPa produces large area of untwinned crystal with highest Li content, which has the lowest helimagnetic ordering temperature ~19K in the LixCu2O2 system.
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