Travelling Solvent Floating Zone ( TSFZ ) Image Furnace

The apparatus is designed to grow crystals by floating zone method.  The apparatus is equipped with the heat source of a halogen lamp installed at one focal point of a rotatory ellipsoidal mirror. Infrared rays irradiated from the reflector is converged to the other focal point to heat and melt samples  thereby forming a floating melt zone. There is an up and down mechanical unit which move up and down independently or in synchronization with each other. The unit is used for forming the melt zone, growth of crystals and separation of the melt zone after the end of the growing by adjusting the gaps between samples as well as feed and seed crystals mounted on the upper and lower main shaft ends. Lamp power is controlled by a personal computer

Following type crystals cannot be grown using TSFZ Furnace:

1. Metal single crystals cannot grown.
2. Compounds containing ingradients with either very low melting point or very high melting point cannot be grown.

Programms in progress

 1.      Growing single crystals of La1-xAxMnO3 ( A=Sr, Ca and Ba ; x=0-0.7 ) and studies of charge, spin and orbital ordering phenomena and Jahn- Teller effect in these grown crystals.

2.      Growing single crystal of  R1/3Sr2/3FeO3  ( R= La, Pr and Nd )  study of 1/f noise and active Raman modes in these systems.

3.      Growing single crystal of Sr2FeMoO6  and studies of its transport, optical and magnetic properties.