Growth, thermodynamic and magneto-structural study of FeGa2O4 single crystals

The growth of FeGa2O4 spinel single crystal by means of the chemical vapour transport technique using chlorine as the transport agent is reported. A thermodynamic study of the FeGa2O4-Cl2 system has been performed and was used to explain the different growth phenomena observed. Moreover, the magnetic and electronic properties were studied by means of magnetic susceptibility measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and X-ray induced Auger spectroscopy: (i) FeGa2O4 is a partially inverse spinel () with 53% of Fe2+ ions on tetrahedral sites; (ii) XPS and Auger results show the oxygen ion in a single chemical environment that differs significantly from those of FeO and Ga2O3 and the surface of the single crystal showed Fe2+ depletion that was about 20%; (iii) spin-glass freezing is observed at low temperatures (Tf = 12.2 Katv = 116 Hz).