Crystals of the (Y 1– x Eu x ) 2 O 3 Solid Solution: Growth and Crystal Structure

Single crystals of a solid solution of the (Y 1– x Eu x ) 2 O 3 compound with the bixbyite-type structure and different europium contents, which are suitable for the structural analysis, are grown by the flux method. The structural data show that the Y/Eu occupation of independent sites is uniform in the crystal; europium has no preferred site occupancy. The average R –O distance is also typical of the rare-earth metal atoms located at different crystallographic sites and increases monotonically as the europium content increases in the crystal. The europium distribution coefficient from the flux is noticeably less than unity, which enriches the crystal with yttrium compared to the flux.