Flux growth of high-quality CoFe2O4 single crystals and their characterization

We report the growth of high-quality CoFe2O4 single crystals using a borax flux method. The crystals were characterized by powder Xray diffraction, electron probe microanalysis and Raman spectroscopy. We found the crystals are flux-free and highly homogeneous in composition. X-ray rocking curves of the CoFe2O4 single crystals showed a full-width at half-maximum of 0.15 degrees. The saturation magnetization of the CoFe2O4 single crystals was measured to be 90 emu/g or equivalently 3.65 mu(B)/f.u. at 5 K. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.