Koala (Laue diffractometer)

The utility of Koala for the rapid assessment of very large crystals has been demonstrated in the case of the important room-temperature oxide ion conductor Sr₂Fe₂O₅ (thanks to Chris Ling, University Sydney). The pattern below was collected in a 1 minute exposure from the entire width of a 6 mm diameter rod, and confirms that we have grown the first ever large single crystal of this compound by the floating-zone method. The same pattern was reproduced along 25 mm of the rod, i.e., this crystal has a volume of ~ 500 mm³.