High-pressure growth of fluorine-free SmFeAsO1-x superconducting single crystals
Abstract
Superconducting single crystals of SmFeAsO1-x without fluorine doping were grown at a pressure of 3.3 GPa and a temperature of 1350-1450 by using the self-flux method. Plate-like single crystals of a few-150 μm in their lateral size were obtained. Single crystals showed the superconducting transition at about 53.5 K with a narrow transition width of 0.5 K. The synchrotron-irradiated x-ray diffractometry patterns and high-angle-annular-dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy images point to the high quality of the crystals with a well-defined layered tetragonal structure. The chemical compositions of the crystals were estimated by using the electron-probe x-ray microanalysis.
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