Crystal growth and neutron diffraction studies of LixCoO2 bulk single crystals

• Neutron sized high quality LixCoO2 single crystals were grown by the optical floating zone technique.
• Bulk measurements using neutron diffraction revealed a composition x  =0.87(6) for a single grain in the trigonal R3¯m structure, and no superlattice reflections were detected.
• Antiferromagnetic ordering was detected below ~10 K.

The first successful growth of neutron-size single-crystal LixCoO2 by the optical floating-zone technique is reported. Structural properties have been studied using the time-of-flight neutron Laue diffraction technique. Our experiment is the first report of the LixCoO2 single-crystal neutron study. The neutron diffraction profile yields sharp, strong Bragg reflections, indicating a single grain of high crystalline quality. The structural refinement from the single-crystal neutron diffraction data indicated a trigonal structure of space group R3¯m, and a Li concentration x=0.87. No superlattice reflections were detected. The surface morphology analysed by scanning electron microscopy revealed the absence of cracks. The magnetic susceptibility was measured in a field of 1 T with Hc and H⊥c, and an antiferromagnetic transition was observed at ~10 K, with no magnetic impurities.