Crystal growth and characterization of Ir-Te compounds

IrTe₂ is distinguished by a structural phase transition whose origin is not understood up to the present day. We grew crystals using the self-flux method starting from the reagents iridium and tellurium and got specimen with varying amounts of IrTe₂ and Ir₃Te₈, analyzed by x-ray powder diffraction. We studied the transition near T = 280 K in magnetization measurements down to T = 1.8 K probing also for superconductivity, which was reported for intercalated samples. Results indicate that the structural transition happens over an extended range in temperature and superconductivity is absent in our samples. Ir₃Te₈ is not studied to such an extent as IrTe₂. In previous publications a structural phase transition is reported. We characterized the transition by performing magnetization measurements and X-ray diffraction.