Ultra-high vacuum compatible preparation chain for intermetallic compounds

We report the development of a versatile material preparation chain forintermetallic compounds, which focuses on the realization of a high-puritygrowth environment. The preparation chain comprises an argon glovebox, an inductively heated horizontal coldboatfurnace, an arc meltingfurnace, an inductively heated rod castingfurnace, an optically heated floating-zonefurnace, a resistively heated annealingfurnace, and an inductively heated annealingfurnace. The coldboatfurnace and the arc meltingfurnace may be loaded from the glovebox by means of a load-lock permitting to synthesize compounds starting with air-sensitive elements while handling the constituents exclusively in an inert gas atmosphere. Allfurnaces are all-metal sealed, bakeable, and may be pumped to ultra-high vacuum. We find that the latter represents an important prerequisite for handling compounds with high vapor pressure under high-purity argon atmosphere. We illustrate the operational aspects of the preparation chain in terms of thesingle-crystalgrowth of the heavy-fermion compound CeNi2Ge2.
Source: Review of Scientific Instruments - Category: Physics Authors: Source Type: research