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Float zone technique
Abstract:
Abstract We report single crystal growth of the series of CeTAl3 compounds with T = Cu, Ag, Au, Pd and Pt by means of optical float zoning, where high crystal quality was confirmed in a thorough characterization process. With the exception of CeAgAl3, all compounds crystallize in the non-centrosymmetric tetragonal BaNiSn3 structure (space group: I4mm, No. 107), whereas CeAgAl3 adopts the related orthorhombic PbSbO2Cl structure (Cmcm, No. 63). An attempt to grow CeNiAl3 resulted in the composition CeNi2Al5. Low temperature resistivity measurements down to ∼ 0.1 K did not reveal evidence suggestive of magnetic order in CePtAl3 and CePdAl3. In contrast, CeAuAl3, CeCuAl3 and CeAgAl3 display signatures of magnetic transitions at 1.3 K, 2.1 K and 3.2 K, respectively. This is consistent with previous reports of antiferromagnetic order in CeAuAl3 and CeCuAl3 as well as ferromagnetism in CeAgAl3, respectively.
