The growth of high-quality single crystals is necessary for the development of lasers, sensors, and communication devices. One major disadvantage of classical melt-based crystal growth techniques is the inability to access a range of refractory oxide compounds due to their extremely high melting temperatures. One such class of desirable refractory materials is the mixed metal oxides containing 4-d or 5-d transition metals and lanthanides. In recent years there has been a great interest in synthesizing oxides containing 4-d or 5-d transition metals and lanthanides since this combination can lead to compounds with interesting magnetic and optical properties such as quantum spin behavior. It is important to synthesize these materials as good quality single crystals in order to obtain accurate and detailed property measurements. However, the refractory nature of these compounds pose limitations on using conventional melt based techniques for the synthesis due to their exceptionally high melting points (≤2200 °C). In this work, we describe a high-temperature hydrothermal technique (ca. 700 °C) to grow a series of novel rare earth rhenates and rare earth tungstates as high-quality single crystals. The single crystal structures of these materials, as well as some of their spectroscopic characterization, will be presented.

Hydrothermal crystal growth and characterization of rare earth rhenium and tungsten oxides

2019 Fall National Meeting

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