Lithium purple bronze (LiPB) Li0.9Mo6O17 was studied extensively in the 1980’s and has recently r... more Lithium purple bronze (LiPB) Li0.9Mo6O17 was studied extensively in the 1980’s and has recently regained interest in the research community. The mechanism for the metal-insulator (M/I) transition at ∼25 K and superconductivity at ∼2 K is still unknown. The temperature gradient flux technique has been used to grow single crystal LiPB. A large superconducting LiPB single crystal was grown (dimensions: 4.7×3.0×1.2 mm) and characterized and will be referred to throughout this work as ‘I33sc2’. For the non-superconducting single crystal oriented along the b-crystallographic axis, we found the maximum value of the energy gap to be 2 meV±0.1 meV at 9.16 K, which is different from the accepted literature value of ∼1 meV at 5-6 K [1,2]. Furthermore, heavier alkali metals (Na, K and Rb) were used in the temperature gradient flux technique. Small lilac brown single crystals were found in all three growths. In particular, the rubidium growth yielded polyhedral (denoted as ‘POLY’, having approxi...
Lithium purple bronze (LiPB) Li0.9Mo6O17 was studied extensively in the 1980’s and has recently r... more Lithium purple bronze (LiPB) Li0.9Mo6O17 was studied extensively in the 1980’s and has recently regained interest in the research community. The mechanism for the metal-insulator (M/I) transition at ∼25 K and superconductivity at ∼2 K is still unknown. The temperature gradient flux technique has been used to grow single crystal LiPB. A large superconducting LiPB single crystal was grown (dimensions: 4.7×3.0×1.2 mm) and characterized and will be referred to throughout this work as ‘I33sc2’. For the non-superconducting single crystal oriented along the b-crystallographic axis, we found the maximum value of the energy gap to be 2 meV±0.1 meV at 9.16 K, which is different from the accepted literature value of ∼1 meV at 5-6 K [1,2]. Furthermore, heavier alkali metals (Na, K and Rb) were used in the temperature gradient flux technique. Small lilac brown single crystals were found in all three growths. In particular, the rubidium growth yielded polyhedral (denoted as ‘POLY’, having approxi...
Uploads
Papers by Darren Hicks