Crystal growth of Eu₂PdSi₃ containing volatile element by optical floating zone method

As a new type of disk storage material, single crystal growth of Eu₂PdSi₃ is a difficult problem because of the volatile element. In the study, Eu₂PdSi₃ crystals were grown by optical floating zone technique. Cellular structure was obtained when the feed rod was prepared according to stoichiometric ratio. It was indicated that constitutional supercooling occoured which was caused by the compositon shift of the melt. Bulk Eu₂PdSi₃ crystals were grown by feed rod composition shift method. It was found that volatile problem could be solved using feed rod composition shift method under the argon pressure higher than 3 MPa.