Crystal Growth and Heat Capacity of Lithium Molybdate Tungstates

Single crystals of lithium molybdate tungstates containing 10 and 15 mol % molybdenum were grown by the low-temperature-gradient Czochralski technique. It was shown that the single crystals have the phenakite structure (space group $$R\bar {3}$$ ). The heat capacity of the Li2W0.85Mo0.15O4 single crystal was measured by differential scanning calorimetry in two temperature ranges: 190–370 and 320–970 K. The heat capacity in the temperature range 190–970 K is well described by the equation Cp = 37.95541 + 0.42875T − 4.87201 × 10–4T2 + 2.15184 × 10–7T 3 J/(K mol). It was determined that there are no phase transitions in the Li2W0.85Mo0.15O4 single crystal in the studied temperature range. This makes this single crystal promising for the search for rare events, such as neutrinoless double β-decay and elastic coherent neutrino scattering off nuclei.