Crystal Structure, Transport, and Magnetic Properties of an Ir6+ Compound Ba8Al2IrO14

The novel iridate Ba8Al2IrO14 was prepared as single crystals by self-flux method, thereby providing a rare example of an all-Ir(VI) compound that can be synthesized under ambient pressure conditions. The preparation of all-Ir6+ iridate without using traditional high-pressure techniques has to our knowledge previously only been reported in Nd2K2IrO7 and Sm2K2IrO7. The monoclinic crystal structure (space group C2/m, No.12) is stable down to 90 K and contains layers of IrO6 octahedra separated by Ba and AlO4 tetrahedra. The material exhibits insulating behavior with a narrow band gap of ∼0.6 eV. The positive Seebeck coefficient indicates hole-like dominant charge carriers. Susceptibility measurement shows antiferromagnetic coupling with no order down to 2 K.