Single crystals of the anisotropic Kagome staircase compounds Ni3V2O8   and Co3V2O8
  Compounds with a Kagome type lattice are known to exhibit magnetic frustration. Large single crystals of two compounds Ni3V2O8 and Co3V2O8, which are variants of a Kagome net lattice, have been grown successfully by the floating zone technique using an optical image furnace. The single crystals are of high quality and exhibit intriguing magnetic properties. 
G. Balakrishnan, O.A. Petrenko, M.R. Lees and D.McK. Paul