Growth and characterization of large single crystals of LiGa Zintl intermetallic compound
Abstract Single crystals of the beta-LiGa Zintl intermetallic compound were grown under carefully observed conditions of chemical purity. The three crystals separated from the specially designed boron nitride crucible are believed to be parts of one single crystalline domain with 5.5 cm length and 1.3 cm diameter. Phase identification was done by X-ray diffraction. The easy cleavage plane was the (111) plane. The lattice parameter was found to be 6.17 A, corresponding to a composition Li 0.45 Ga 0.55 for the final product. The crystals are being used for studies of the electronic structure of valence and conduction bands of the material by angle resolved photoemission and inverse photoemission techniques.