Single-crystal growth of the complex metallic alloy phase β-Al–Mg

The development of a single-crystal growth route for the complex metallic alloy phase β-Al₃Mg₂ is presented. After initial probing of the phase diagram in the vicinity of the existence range of the β-phase, we performed single-crystal growth experiments employing various techniques. The Czochralski and self-flux growth turned out to be the most suitable for this phase, and with both we reproducibly achieved single crystals of several cubic centimeters in volume. While the Czochralski technique allows for the production of deliberately oriented single crystals, the self-flux technique is capable of producing very large but unoriented single grains.