Growth of Sr6Rh5O15 single crystals from high-temperature solutions:: Structure determination using the traditional 3-D and the 4-D superspace group methods and magnetic measurements on oriented single crystals

Single crystals of Sr6Rh5O15 were grown from a molten potassium carbonate flux. The structure was solved by both the traditional 3-D crystallographic approach and the 4-D superspace group approach using JANA2000. Both methods produced an equivalent structure determination, thereby confirming the 4-D superspace group approach as an effective structure solution method for 3-D commensurate composite structures. Sr6Rh5O15 corresponds to the n = 1, m = I member of the A(3n+3m)A ' nB3m+nO9m+6n family of 2H hexagonal perovskite-related oxides. This compound is characterized by pseudo-one-dimensional polyhedral chains of four face-sharing RhO6 octahedra followed by one RhO6 trigonal prism. These chains in turn are separated by [Sr](infinity) chains. Magnetic measurements were carried out on oriented single crystals, and a very large magnetic anisotropy in the magnetic susceptibility was observed.