Single crystal growth of Bi1−xSrxMnO3—Thermodynamics and experiment

The primary crystallization field of a perovskite solid solution Bi1−xSrxMnO3−δ was delimited by calculating the respective phase equilibria in the quaternary Bi–Sr–Mn–O system. The calculations are based on the recent assessment involving all three ternary subsystems, a quaternary liquid approximated as a mixture of Mn, MnO, Mn2O3, SrO and Bi2O3 species with binary Redlich–Kister coefficients and the perovskite phase described in terms of a point defect model allowing Sr2+ for Bi3+ substitution, oxygen vacancy formation and the related Mn3+/Mn4+ mixing on Mn-sublattice. The crystallization path and the composition of the crystallized solid solution are compared with single crystal growth experiments performed by self-flux method from a Bi-rich melt. The crystallization path obtained for a selected feed composition for which the largest and high quality single crystal have been grown, turns out to end very close to the global eutectic point.