Single Crystal Growth at Warwick

There is a constant demand for materials suitable for use in new devices and applications, fuelling the rapid technological advances made across the world. Such developments are only possible because of the efforts of materials physicists and chemists, who drive this progress by first discovering new materials and then continually improving the materials' properties, and therefore their performance, to enable their use in applications. It is an indisputable fact that to fully understand the physics and to exploit the functionality of many classes of materials, studies of single crystals are absolutely essential. It is therefore imperative that crystals with the optimum physical properties are produced and then investigated. Consequently, the provision of high-quality single crystals underpins progress in both fundamental as well as applied materials research. Single crystal growth is thus an activity of strategic importance, allowing scientists to work at the forefront of investigations of the physics of materials. The proposed programme will be carried out by a team of experts based in the Superconductivity and Magnetism Group at the University of Warwick, an internationally recognised centre of excellence in single crystal growth. The team have all the necessary expertise and access to a suite of equipment for both the production of high-quality crystals, and investigations of the properties of the wide range of new and exotic materials described in the proposal. Over the 3 year period of the project, the team propose to produce high-quality single crystals of a variety of important systems of current interest to the research community. These include magnetic (frustrated, low-dimensional, spin-liquid), superconducting (unconventional, non-centrosymmetric, exotic) and topological (skyrmion and soliton lattice) materials, 2D systems (transition metal dichalcogenides, cleavable magnetic), and materials suitable for applications in lasers and batteries. In-house studies of the synthesised crystals will be complemented by work at international central facilities using techniques such as neutron and x-ray scattering, muon spectroscopy, and measurements in high magnetic fields, as well as by our collaborators, including important input from theorists, enabling us to arrive at a more complete understanding of the physics of the materials. For the crystal growth of each target material, the most suitable preparation method will first be determined through pilot studies. At Warwick, there exists a choice of several growth techniques including the Floating Zone/Travelling Solvent Floating Zone technique, Chemical Vapour Transport, and the Bridgman and Czochralski methods, with accessible melting temperatures of up to 3000 °C. Crystal growth by the floating zone technique is possible at elevated gas pressures of up to 30 bars, which will be a great advantage when working with volatile materials, as well as those with metastable and/or unusual oxidation states. This single crystal growth programme supports a very large network of UK research groups, made up of academics, facilities' scientists, students and postdoctoral researchers. The activity at Warwick also attracts many international scientists, seeking the provision of high-quality single crystal samples for their studies. The collaborative network, which has been active for many years, continues to grow, attracting new members from academic research institutions as well as scientists working in a commercial/industrial setting. This activity will help serve the future materials needs of the UK condensed matter physics community, facilitate the training of early career researchers in the science of crystal growth, and enable world-class fundamental and applied research.