Structural and optical properties of LuVO4 single crystals

The synthesis of large single crystals with good optical quality which is a preliminary condition for the practical applications of these materials frequently is complicated. It is found that large LuVO4 single crystals with high optical quality are possible to be prepared using high temperature solution growth method. It is obtained by X-ray crystallographic analysis that the grown crystals possess centrosymmetric tetragonal structure with the point group symmetry D4h and space group I41/amd (zircon-type structure). The unit cell parameters of a = 7.0236 Å, b = 7.0236 Å, c = 6.2293 Å, volume = 307.30(3) Å3 are measured. The crystals composition as well as vanadium oxidation state were measured in order to confirm that the crystal phase is mainly LuVO4. Optical transmission and Raman Spectroscopy are further performed on LuVO4 single crystal to reveal the optical quality and structure details