Growth of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 single crystals from Bi-rich melts

High-quality Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 single crystals with dimensions up to 15x4x0.05 mm 3 were grown from the starting composition Bi 2+ x Sr 2 CaCu 2 O y , where x =0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. Different amounts of Bi 2 O 3 in excess are included in each crystal growth run to act as flux for the growth and the optimum concentrations of the flux amount have been found. Structure characterization of a high-quality 2212 free crystal of 5x1.8x0.02 mm 3 was conducted by the (00 l ), ( h 00) and (0 k 0) X-ray diffractions, using a rotating anode diffractometer, and the back-reflection Laue photograph. It is found that melting incongruency is the main problem encountered in the growth of large and pure-phase single crystals from Bi 2 O 3 -rich melts and we have shown that, for x =0.8, crystals of 2212 phase and crystals of 2201 phase coexisting with CuO are obtained from the two segregated parts of the Bi-rich melts.