Growth of C60 single crystals from PVT with a controlled nucleation

Single crystals of C60 were grown by physical vapor transport (PVT) in a vertical furnace with a pulling technique. By varying the degree of supersaturation, the initial nucleation phenomenon, which exhibits a memory effect, was studied and explained from a microscopic viewpoint. From this method and under control of small degree of supersaturation, high quality C60 single crystals with size up to 3 mm were obtained.