High-Pressure Floating-Zone Growth of Perovskite Nickelate LaNiO₃ Single Crystals

Abstract

ABSTRAT:We report the first single crystal growth of the correlated metal LaNiO3 using a highpressure optical-image floating zone furnace. The crystals were studied using single crystal/powder x-ray diffraction, resistivity, specific heat, and magnetic susceptibility. The availability of bulk LaNiO3 crystals will (i) promote deep understanding in this correlated material, including the mechanism of enhanced paramagnetic susceptibility, and (ii) provide rich opportunities as a substrate for thin film growth such as important ferroelectric and/or multifer ro ic materials. This study demonstrates the power of high pO2 single crystal growth of nickelate perovskites and correlated electron oxides more generally.

Observation of an antiferromagnetic quantum critical point in high-purity LaNiO3

“…The data can be fit well to a T 2 dependence for B = 9 T and 18 T, with corresponding A coefficients in ρ(T ) being 8 × 10 −3 and 7 × 10 −3 µΩ cm K −2 , respectively. These values of A are about 3 to 4 times larger than those, ∼ 2 × 10 −3 µΩ cm K −2 , reported for LNO previously 13,15,26 , which is suggestive of enhanced scattering near the QCP. We note that this crossover to LFL in the resistivity under a magnetic field is seen only in samples with RRR ≥ 18.…”

“…A description of the uncertainties of the data points is presented in the Methods section. Phonons are nominally not relevant in this low temperature regime given that the Debye temperature of LNO is above 400 K. 13 Ni-O bond length fluctuations could be a source of linear−T resistivity at low temperatures 14 , and there may be other mechanisms as well (charge fluctuations, Umklapp scatterings). However, these mechanisms are less natural for explaining our data as they would have a weak dependence on magnetic field, which will be discussed in the following.…”

Breathing distortions in the metallic, antiferromagnetic phase of LaNiO$_3$

“…In terms of the reciprocal lattice vectors of the rhombohedral R3c and orthorhombic P nma unit cells, the propagating wave vectors are ( 1 2 , 1 2 , 1 2 ) r and ( 1 2 , 1 2 , 0) o , respectively. Another recent experimental study on single crystal samples by Zhang et al, however, did not find any such transition [31]. A broad feature in the susceptibility measurements is seen in Zhang et al's samples and a small anomaly had also been observed previously [30], which suggests that long range magnetic ordering might only occur in highly pure samples.…”

Anomalous magnetic and spin glass behavior in Nb-substituted LaCo1−xNbxO3

“…Moreover, magnetization and neutron diffraction studies observed the presence of spin glass and long-range ordered ferromagnetic correlation at low temperatures [14,[43][44][45][46]. However, a recent study on highly metelllic LaNiO 3 single crystals by Li et al revealed antiferromagnetic ordering in magnetization, specific heat and neutron scattering experiments [49], which is in contrast with another report in [50]. In case of LaCo 1−x Mn x O 3 , where LaMnO 3 is antiferromagnetic insulator and crystallizes in an orthorhombic structure, detailed magnetization and neutron diffraction studies arXiv:1801.04401v1 [cond-mat.str-el] 13 Jan 2018 suggest the ferromagnetic/glassy nature and structural transition with Mn concentration [47].…”