Single crystal growth of β-Tb₂(MoO₄)₃ and its evaluation

ABSTRACT

A single crystal of β-terbium molybdate, β-Tb₂(MoO₄)₃ (TMO), was grown using the floating zone (FZ) method. The single crystal is transparent and light green. To evaluate the single crystal, it was subjected to powder X-ray diffraction measurements. Rietveld refinement was performed for the diffraction pattern. In addition, studies of its heat capacity were performed. The first-order ferroelectric and ferroelastic phase transition temperature, T_C, was found to be 431.98 K. The results show that the grown crystal is the single-phase, high quality TMO.

KEYWORDS:

• β-terbium molybdate
• β-Tb₂(MoO₄)₃
• single crystal growth
• X-ray diffraction
• crystal structure
• heat capacity

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Kosuke Fujiwara and Prof. Naoshi Ikeda for providing an oscillation photograph.

Funding

This work was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 25400329 and 16K04931.