Floating zone growth of Ba-substituted ruthenate Sr2-xBaxRuO4

Abstract

We report on the exploration to synthesize Sr2-xBaxRuO4, the large volume variant of the unconventional superconductor Sr2RuO4. We have succeeded in growing single crystals for x-values up to 0.4 by making use of the traveling solvent floating zone method. The quality of the obtained crystals is confirmed by X-ray and neutron diffraction measurements and the properties of these Ba-substituted ruthenates were studied with magnetic and electrical transport measurements. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.