Czochralski growth of LaPd2Al2 single crystals

The present study is focused on the preparation of single crystalline LaPd2Al2 by the Czochralski method. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analyses reveal that LaPd2Al2 is an incongruently melting phase which causes difficulties for the preparation of single crystalline LaPd2Al2 by the Czochralski method. Therefore several non-stoichiometric polycrystalline samples were studied for its preparation. Finally the successful growth of LaPd2Al2 without foreign phases has been achieved by using a non-stoichiometric precursor with atomic composition 22:39:39 (La:Pd:Al). X-ray powder diffraction, EDX analysis and DSC were used for the characterisation. A single crystalline sample was separated from the ingot prepared by the Czochralski method using the non-stoichiometric precursor. The presented procedure for the preparation of pure single phase LaPd2Al2 could be modified for other incongruently melting phases.