Synthesis and anisotropic magnetic and transport properties of cubic SrCoO$_{3}$ single crystal

Solid state oxides containing transition metals with unusually high valence states exhibit interesting physical properties. However, due to the unstableness of these high valence states, high pressure is often needed to stabilize such high valence states. We were successful in growing a large-size SrCoO$_{3}$ single crystal by using high-pressure technique. This material shows good metallic behavior with high ferromagnetic Curie temperature about 305 K, and the easy magnetization axis is $<$111$>$ direction. The spin moment of Co$^{4+}$ ion measured at 2 K and 7 T is about 2.50 $\mu _{B}$, suggesting an intermediate spin configuration as predicted by theoretical calculations. Although SrCoO$_{3}$ has a highly symmetric cubic crystal structure (Pm-3m), it exhibits significant anisotropic magnetoresistance at low temperatures.