Single Crystal Growth, Bonding Analysis and Superconductivity of V2Ga5.

Synthesis of the superconducting V2Ga5 compound was achieved using molten Ga as the flux material. Large single crystals of 30 mm in length can be obtained with this method. Single crystal X-ray diffraction and computational studies were carried out for this compound. V2Ga5 crystallizes in the tetragonal lattice P4/mbm (No. 127) with lattice constants a=8.936(3) A, c=2.683(2) A, V=214.3(2) A3, and Z=2. Computational study shows that bonding in this compound is delocalized, and the majority states at the Fermi level are the vanadium d-band. Resistivity and magnetization measurements have confirmed that the solid is a bulk type II superconductor with TC=3.59 K.