Single crystal growth and characterization of a layered transition metal pnictide oxide: Na₂Ti₂Sb₂O

Single crystals of Na₂Ti₂Sb₂O have been grown by NaSb flux method. It crystallizes in platelet morphology with dark silver color. The growth conditions are optimized and crystal structure has been analyzed by single crystal X-ray diffraction at 88.7, 120.0 and 150.0K. The structure analysis result shows that there is a non-linear change in temperature-dependent lattice parameters suggesting that previously reported anomaly in temperature-dependent magnetization and electrical resistivity of polycrystalline samples around 120K is associated with the structure distortion. Temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility of a single crystal sample grown by NaSb flux method also exhibits a sharp transition around 120K confirming that this anomaly is intrinsic to Na₂Ti₂Sb₂O.