Growth of High-Entropy Oxide Single Crystals by means of Floating Zone Technique

The high-entropy materials (HEMs) have been dealt with as a new play ground of the material engineering, since the functionality of the materials is expected to enhance by controlling the new degrees of freedom. Also, the field flips traditional condensed matter physics paradigms on their head by seeking to understand what properties arise in the presence of profound configurational dis[1]order. However, the fundamental physics governing these materials, including the true degree of configurational entropy, its role in stabilizing the structure, and its effect on other physical properties such as magnetism and electrical transport all remain open questions. A key roadblock towards achieving a deeper understanding of HEMs has been the inability to study these materials in single crystal form. Although the imperative to study HEMs in single crystal form are clear, many crystal growth methods are excluded because the synthesis of HEMs requires high levels of both thermodynamic and kinetic control. We suggest that floating zone growth is the optimal method to unlock this new frontier. In this talk, we will report several high-entropy oxide single crystals grown by the floating zone technique and discuss the advantages of this method in achieving high quality crystals of HEMs.