Optical floating zone growth of high-quality Cu2MnAl single crystals
  We report the growth of large single-crystals of Cu2MnAl, a ferromagnetic Heusler compound suitable for polarizing neutron monochromators, by means of optical floating zone under ultra-high vacuum compatible conditions. Unlike Bridgman or Czochralsky grown Cu2MnAl, our floating zone grown single-crystals show highly reproducible magnetic properties and an excellent crystal quality with a narrow and homogeneous mosaic spread as examined by neutron diffraction. An investigation of the polarizing properties in neutron scattering suggests a high polarization efficiency, limited by the relatively small sample dimensions studied. Our study identifies optical floating zone under ultra-high vacuum compatible conditions as a highly reproducible method to grow high-quality single-crystals of Cu2MnAl. 
Andreas Neubauer, Florian Jonietz, Martin Meven, Robert Georgii, Georg   Brandl, Gunther Behr, Peter B\"oni, Christian Pflei...
cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.str-el physics.ins-det