Floating-zone growth of large high-quality CoAl2O4 single crystals

We report the first successful floating-zone growth of high-quality CoAl2O4 single crystals with volume up to 1 cm3 free from inclusions and sub-grains. The neutron rocking curves of the CoAl2O4 crystal have the width of about 0.30 degree proving the excellent quality of the grown samples. X-ray synchrotron experiments show that crystals have spinel structure with the lattice constant a0=8.09853(1) Å. Magnetization measurements give the effective magnetic moment μeff=4.63 μB per Co+2 ion in a good agreement with previous measurements on ceramic samples.