Optical Floating-Zone Growth of Large Single Crystal of Spin Half Dimer Sr3Cr2O8

Large single crystals (similar to 6 mm in diameter and 35-50 mm in length) of spin dimer system Sr3Cr2O8 have bee grown in a four-mirror type optical floating-zone furnace under different atmospheres. Single crystals were characterized by polarized optical microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray, and neutron Lane measurements, etc. Crystals were grown under an optimized growth atmosphere of flowing (6-8 L/min) synthetic air found to be free of any impurities and excellent in quality. Characteristics of the Magnetic Susceptibility and magnetization along different crystallographic axes are also shown.