Growth of large single crystals of Rare Earth Hexaborides

摘要

Single crystal growth of several rare earth hexaborides has been carried outby the floating zone technique. A high power Xenon arc lamp image furnace wasused for the crystal growth. Large high quality crystals of LaB$_{6}$,CeB$_{6}$, PrB$_{6}$ and NdB$_{6}$, about 1 cc in volume have been obtained.Crystals of all these compounds have also been grown using enriched $^{11}$Bisotope for use in neutron scattering experiments.