Growth of delafossite CuAlO2 single crystals in a reactive crucible

Abstract

Delafossite oxide CuAlO2 has engaged great attention as a promising p-type conducting oxide. In this work, high-quality CuAlO2 single crystals with a size of several millimeters (mm) are successfully achieved with a reactive crucible melting method. The crystals are characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive spectroscopy, transport measurement, and magnetic susceptibility measurement. The grown single crystals are free of contamination from a copper oxide flux. This work provides a new approach to growing high-quality delafossite oxide CuAlO2 with a few mm size.