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.