Growth of Ba_1-xCa_xTiO₃ single-crystal fibers by a laser heated pedestal method

In this study, Ba_1-xCa_xTiO₃ single-crystal fibers with various compositions, x = 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2, were grown by the laser heated pedestal growth method using SrTiO₃ and Ba_1-xCa_xTiO₃ seeds, with x = 0.1 and 0.2. The grown crystals possess a tetragonal structure, and the composition along the growth direction is very uniform. Such Ba_1-xCa_xTiO₃ crystal fibers are easier to grow using Ba_1-xCa_xTiO₃ seeds because of a better-structured crystal at the beginning of the growth process compared with the SrTiO₃ seed. As the composition of Ca increases, the unit-cell parameters of tetragonal Ba_1-xCa_xTiO₃ crystal fibers decrease, the cubic-tetragonal phase-transition temperature is slightly reduced, and the tetragonal-orthorhombic phase-transition temperature declines dramatically.