Single-crystal growth of barium fluorochloride by indirect flux method

Abstract

BaF₂·BaCl₂ (barium fluorochloride) has been grown in the form of crystalline plates by allowing NaF and BaCl₂ to react in the molten state followed by slow cooling of the mixture. Growth conditions favourable for the production of crystals of good quality have been established. The crystal plates are identified as single crystals by etching and by X-ray Laue photograph. The chemical composition of the crystal, as determined by estimating the proportion of Ba²⁺, Cl^- and F^- ions is conjectured to be BaF₂·BaCl₂. The primitive tetragonal unit cell dimensions have been measured as a=b=4.46±0.12 Å and c=7.34±0.14Å. The density of 4.451±0.052g·cm^-3 of the crystal suggests that there exists only one molecule per unit cell.