Oxygen-deficient strontium cobaltate, SrCoO2.64

Single crystals of strontium cobaltate, SrCoO3-x, have been grown by the floating-zone method in an oxygen flow. The compound crystallizes with the cubic perovskite structure, with Pm (3) over barm symmetry, as determined by X-ray diffraction. Refinement of the O-atom site occupancy yields the chemical composition SrCoO2.64 [ x = 0.36 ( 3)]. The anisotropic displacement ellipsoids of the O atoms suggest that their positional disorder occurs in a direction perpendicular to that of the Co - O bonds.