Chemical vapor transport and characterization of MnBi2Se4

Layered metal chalcogenides such as MnBi2Se4 are interesting candidates for a wide field of applications such as for thermo- and photoelectrics. High-quality single crystals are necessary in order to investigate their properties which can be prepared by chemical vapor transport (CVT). The CVT of MnBi2Se4 has not been investigated until this point and is subject of the presented paper. We obtained needle-like MnBi2Se4 single crystals with a length up to 15 mm. The magnetic characterization has shown an antiferromagnetic transition around 14 K. Additionally, electrical transport described MnBi2Se4 as a narrow band-gap semiconductor (EGap=0.15 eV). Thermodynamic data for MnBi2Se4 at room temperature were determined to H°=−305KJ·mol−1, S=321 J K−1·mol−1 and Cp=167.568+25.979·10−3·TJ·K−1·mol−1, respectively. Our results on CVT-grown single crystals confirm reported data from literature and complete the data set for MnBi2Se4.