TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bauer, A.
AU  - Neubauer, A.
AU  - Münzer, W.
AU  - Regnat, A.
AU  - Benka, G.
AU  - Meven, M.
AU  - Pedersen, B.
AU  - Pfleiderer, C.
TI  - Ultra-high vacuum compatible induction-heated rod casting furnace
JO  - Review of scientific instruments
VL  - 87
IS  - 6
SN  - 1089-7623
CY  - [S.l.]
PB  - American Institute of Physics
M1  - FZJ-2016-06935
SP  - 063909 -
PY  - 2016
AB  - We report the design of a radio-frequency induction-heated rod casting furnace that permits the preparation of polycrystalline ingots of intermetallic compounds under ultra-high vacuum compatible conditions. The central part of the system is a bespoke water-cooled Hukin crucible supporting a casting mold. Depending on the choice of the mold, typical rods have a diameter between 6 mm and 10 mm and a length up to 90 mm, suitable for single-crystal growth by means of float-zoning. The setup is all-metal sealed and may be baked out. We find that the resulting ultra-high vacuum represents an important precondition for processing compounds with high vapor pressures under a high-purity argon atmosphere up to 3 bars. Using the rod casting furnace, we succeeded to prepare large high-quality single crystals of two half-Heusler compounds, namely, the itinerant antiferromagnet CuMnSb and the half-metallic ferromagnet NiMnSb.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000379177000056
C6  - pmid:27370472
DO  - DOI:10.1063/1.4954926
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/824326
ER  -