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High pressure crystal growth of the antiperovskite centrosymmetric superconductor SrPt3P

Bulk single crystals of SrPt3P have been grown for the first time by a self-flux method at 2 GPa and 1500 °C using the cubic-anvil, high-pressure and high-temperature technique. The grown black crystals were found to have either a plate-like or pillar-like morphology with maximum dimensions of ~ 1 - 0.6 - 0.3 mm3. According to a goniometric study the crystals are elongated in the ab-plane with the c-axis perpendicular to the plane. The crystal structure was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (P4/nmm, # 129, Z = 2, a = b = 5.7927(2) Å, c = 5.3729(2) Å and V = 180.290(11) Å3). Temperature dependent susceptibility measurements showed a single-phase behaviour and a superconducting transition temperature of 8.6 K. This value for single crystals is slightly higher than that previously reported for polycrystalline SrPt3P. The sharpness of the susceptibility drop (ΔTc = 0.07 K) supports a high homogeneity of obtained crystals.