Welcome to Crystal Growth Lab
Crystals are the pillars of modern technology. Whether it is for application purposes or for basic research single crystals are very much inevitable. Growth of single crystals needs some extra effort and this extra effort is very well justified by their ability to study the anisotropic physical property measurements.
The main theme of our research group is on the anisotropic studies of Strongly Correlated Electron System (SCES) particularly on the rare-earth intermetallic systems. Recently, the research on condensed matter physics is focussed on the magnetic instability arising due to the effect of pressure near the so called quantum critical point (QCP). In some compounds superconductivity is observed near the QCP. It has been well documented in the literature that high quality single crystalline samples are necessary to observe superconductivity near QCP.
The single crystals of SCES compounds can be grown by a variety of methods based on their melting behaviour. We employ the following methods to grow the single crystals:
- Czochralski method (using Tetra-arc and induction furnace)
- High Temperatuer Solution Growth (Flux growth)
- Brdigman method
To study the anisotropic physical properties, the grown crystals have to be oriented and cut along the crystallographic axis. We employ the x-ray Laue diffraction method to orient the single crystal and a wire electric discharge machine (EDM) to cut the single crystal. The magnetic properties of the single crystals are studied by means of the electrical resistivity (home made set-up), Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID), Physical Property Measurement System (PPMS) both from Quantum Design, USA and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) from Oxford, UK. High pressure electrical resistivity measurements are performed using a home made piston-cylinder type pressure cell for pressures up to 2.5 GPa.