Growth and oxygen treatment of SrFeO3−y single crystals

We report the reproducible growth of inclusion-free SrFeO3−y single crystals with volume of 0.3 cm3 under proper choice of growth conditions by the floating zone technique. High-pressure oxygen treatment up to 5 kbar was applied in order to get fully oxidized single-crystalline samples. Based on results of magnetic susceptibility, Mössbauer, Raman and neutron diffraction measurements we conclude that oxygen deficiency is less than 0.01 (y<0.01y<0.01) for 5 kbar annealed samples. Neutron scattering experiments demonstrate the high-quality of annealed crystals with mosaicity of about 0.5°.