High‐temperature infrared and dielectric properties of large sapphire crystal for seeker dome application

In this paper, large‐sized (∅︁230 mm × 210 mm, 27.5 kg) sapphire was successfully grown by SAPMAC (sapphire growth technique with micro‐pulling and shoulder‐expanding at cooled center) method; and hemisphere dome (140 mm diameter, 5 mm thickness) was fabricated from as‐grown boule. Also, its high temperature infrared transmission (2∼7 µm, 20–800°C) and microwave dielectric properties (8–16.5 GHz, 30–1300°C) were investigated. The experimental results show that sapphire crystal exhibits high infrared transmittance (3 μm, 80–86%), essentially negligible dielectric loss (4.9×10^‐5–3.7×10^‐4), but fairly high dielectric constants (ε=9.4–12.5) in the temperature range of 30–1300°C. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

导模法生长六片片状蓝宝石晶体的研究

采用导模法生长出六片片状蓝宝石晶体,单片尺寸为350 mm×80 mm×2 mm.通过CGSim模拟软件模拟计算和实验验证,确定了合适的生长温场为横向温梯2.9~4.6 K/mm,生长速度控制在5~10 mm/h之间.对晶体进行双晶摇摆曲线测试,峰强度很高且对称性良好,摇摆曲线的半高宽FWHM=16.946″,证明晶体的结晶完整性很高.采用化学腐蚀法对六片晶体进行位错密度的检测,计算出晶体的位错密度都在103量级,中间晶体位错密度小于两边晶体的位错密度.测试了六片晶体的弯曲强度,最高强度达1583 MPa,中间晶体强度大于两边.     

用不同粒度的籽晶生长优质宝石级金刚石单晶

利用温度梯度法生长宝石级金刚石单晶过程中,由于籽晶接收碳源能力有限,单一晶种将很难完全吸收扩散下来的碳源,因而导致籽晶的粒度对晶体生长速度和品质都会产生很大影响.随着籽晶粒度的增大,晶体的生长速度增幅非常明显,但不是粒度越大越好,存在临界粒度,超过临界粒度,优质单晶就很难生长.以NiMnCo触媒为例,籽晶粒度由0.5mm增加到2.0mm后,晶体的生长速度可由1.0mg/h提高到3.0mg/h,但籽晶粒度超过2mm后,晶体内部包裹体大幅度增加.     

冷心放肩微量提拉法大尺寸蓝宝石单晶生长过程的模拟分析

利用数值模拟方法计算了冷心放肩微量提拉法(SAPMAC)蓝宝石晶体生长过程.结合晶体直径变化、裂纹出现位置与延续方向、晶体透明性等实验现象,通过与提拉法、温梯法、坩埚移动法等相对比,分析了冷心放肩微量提拉法晶体生长各阶段的工艺特点,并根据模拟计算结果对晶体生长系统和晶体生长控制工艺进行了改进.分别利用增大热交换器的散热参数、降低加热温度、改进降温曲线、调节外加轴向和径向温度梯度的方式来实现对晶体生长的引晶、放肩、等径和收尾控制.通过实验比较证明了改进后的晶体生长系统和晶体生长控制工艺能够生长出性能较好的大尺寸蓝宝石晶体.     

蓝宝石晶体热性能的各向异性对SAPMAC法晶体生长的影响

采用有限元法对冷心放肩微量提拉法蓝宝石晶体生长过程中晶体内的温度、应力分布进行了模拟计算,结合实验结果讨论了蓝宝石晶体热性能的各向异性对晶体生长的影响.研究结果表明,对于冷心放肩微量提拉蓝宝石晶体生长系统,较大的轴向热导率有利于提高晶体的生长速率和界面稳定性,而稍大的径向热导率则有利于保持微凸的生长界面.晶体内的热应力受径向热膨胀系数的影响显著,随着径向热膨胀系数的增大而增大,最大热应力总是出现在籽晶与新生晶体的界面区域.在实验中选α轴为结晶取向,成功生长出了直径达230mm、高质量蓝宝石晶体.     

Crystal cracking analysis and three‐dimensional effects during Kyropoulos sapphire growth

Kyropoulos (Ky) method is the most suitable technique for the growth of high‐quality sapphire single crystal for substrate applications. Cracks are often observed in the grown ingot that significantly reduces industrial productivity. In the paper, cracking causes are analyzed by examining crystal shape, thermal stress and three‐dimensional effects during the stable growth of sapphire crystal. It is found that locally induced thermal stress around the shoulder of the crystal is the largest. However, thermal stress is not fully responsible for the cracks, since the predicted stress level is lower than a critical value regarding crystal cracking. Polycrystalline growth or/and other crystal defects must be another factor that degrades the critical value and makes the crystal more fragile. Simulation results further show that crystal shape has less effect on the thermal stress level, although experiments have shown that crack‐free crystals usually have smooth surfaces. The initial cracking position in the ingot predicted in simulation agrees well with experimental observation after considering crystal defects in a qualitative discussion. From the view of three‐dimensional simulation, the variation of heating condition during growth may result in high thermal stress locally that leads to the cracks at one side of the crystal. Additionally, three‐dimensionally unexpected temperature drop of the heater may be responsible for the sticking‐to‐crucible phenomenon at the shoulder region of the grown crystal.     

Temperature gradient controlled growth and optical properties of Er:BaY2F8 crystals

Single crystals of Erbium (Er) doped BaY₂F₈ have been obtained by the temperature gradient technique (TGT). No‐seed‐grown crystal of Er:BaY₂F₈, with the dimensions up to several centimeters, was obtained by self‐crystallization. The optimizations of various growth parameters were systemically investigated. The results indicated that the temperature gradient of 6‐7 K/mm and the cooling velocity less than 6 K/h were suitable for the crystal growth. The XRD data and the investigations on the growth striations by a stereo polarization microscope displayed that the [001] direction is the dominating direction for the crystal growth. The crystal grown by TGT often cracks along with the (100) plane, which is caused by the excessive decrease of the temperature during the crystal growth, for there is a rapid change in the thermal expansion curve of the BaY₂F₈ crystal in the temperature range from 800 °C to 900 °C. The spectral properties of Er:BaY₂F₈ single crystals have been studied and the effects of frequency up‐conversion of the crystals are reported. Spectral data suggest that the quality of Er:BaY₂F₈ crystal obtained by TGT method is good and the crystal has the potential application in laser devices. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Numerical optimization of czochralski sapphire single crystal growth using orthogonal design method

Crystal quality during Czochralski (Cz) growth is influenced significantly by the convexity of solid/liquid (S/L) interface, which is related to operating conditions, such as Radio‐Frequency (RF) coil position, crystal rotation and crucible rotation. Generally, a flat interface shape is preferred for high‐quality crystal growth. It is difficult to achieve the optimized conditions even from numerical modeling due to the large computational load from examining all of the affecting factors. Orthogonal design/test method, fortunately, provides an efficient way to organize the study of multiple factors with the minimization of computational load. In the paper, this method is adopted to investigate the affecting factors of Cz‐sapphire single crystal growth based on the coupled calculation of thermal field and melt flows. The orthogonal analysis clearly reveals the optimized growth conditions to achieve a relative flat S/L interface under the current ranges of the parameters.     

r面白宝石单晶的温梯法生长及缺陷研究

本文描述使用温梯法(TGT)生长(1102)方向的白宝石单晶,应用X射线双晶摇摆曲线(XRC)测定了晶体内部的完整性,再利用KOH熔体腐蚀出样品的r面(1102)上的位错蚀坑,借助扫描电子显微镜(SEM)进行观察,发现r面白宝石的位错腐蚀坑呈等腰三角形,并且有台阶状结构,并分析了位错的成因.     

Single‐crystal sapphire microstructure for high‐resolution synchrotron X‐ray monochromators

We report on the growth and characterization of sapphire single crystals for X‐ray optics applications. Structural defects were studied by means of laboratory double‐crystal X‐ray diffractometry and white‐beam synchrotron‐radiation topography. The investigations confirmed that the main defect types are dislocations. The best quality crystal was grown using the Kyropoulos technique. Therein the dislocation density was 10²–10³ cm⁻² and a small area with approximately 2*2 mm² did not show dislocation contrast in many reflections. This crystal has suitable quality for application as a backscattering monochromator. A clear correlation between growth rate and dislocation density is observed, though growth rate is not the only parameter impacting the quality.     

Simulation of temperature and flow fields in an inductively heated melt growth system

The goal of the research presented here is to apply a global analysis of an inductively heated Czochralski furnace for a real sapphire crystal growth system and predict the characteristics of the temperature and flow fields in the system. To do it, for the beginning stage of a sapphire growth process, influence of melt and gas convection combined with radiative heat transfer on the temperature field of the system and the crystal‐melt interface have been studied numerically using the steady state two‐dimensional finite element method. For radiative heat transfer, internal radiation through the grown crystal and surface to surface radiation for the exposed surfaces have been taken into account. The numerical results demonstrate that there are a powerful vortex which arises from the natural convection in the melt and a strong and large vortex that flows upwards along the afterheater side wall and downwards along the seed and crystal sides in the gas part. In addition, a wavy shape has been observed for the crystal‐melt interface with a deflection towards the melt. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Growth of ZnO single crystals by an induced nucleation from a high temperature solution of the ZnO‐PbF2 system

To grow ZnO single crystals from a high temperature solution of the ZnO‐PbF₂ system, a gas cooling system was assembled at the bottom of the crucible to induce nucleation in the initial growth stage. The growth experiments were carried out in a homemade vertical Bridgman furnace and Pt crucible of 28 mm in diameter was used. The furnace temperature was set to 1100°C and the flow rate of the oxygen gas was optimized as 3.0 l/min. ZnO crystal up to 5∼8mm in the thickness was obtained with the lowering rate of 0.3 mm/h. XRD patterns showed that the as‐grown crystal was pure ZnO Wurtzite phase. The impurity ions were analyzed by the glow discharge mass spectroscopy (GDMS) as 390.0 ppm and 40.0 ppm for Pb²⁺ and F^‐, respectively. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Growth of benzophenone single crystals from solution: A novel approach with 100% solute ‐ crystal conversion efficiency

An unidirectional 60mm diameter benzophenone single crystal was successfully grown by utilizing a novel crystal growth method at room temperature. <110> oriented single crystal ingots were grown out of xylene as solvent and by fixing a seed at the bottom of the ampoule. The obtained benzophenone ingots with the sizes of 10mm, 25mm and 60mm diameter evident that ease in increasing the diameter of the ingot. The orientation of the ingot and the crystalline quality were justified by X‐ray studies. TG and DTA evaluated the thermal properties of the grown crystal. The optical transmission study and the powder SHG measurement show the suitability of the ingot for nonlinear optical applications. The achieved solute‐crystal conversion efficiency of hundred percent shows vital advantage of this technique for cost effectiveness. The microbial growth as in the case of amino acid based growth solutions can be more effectively controlled in the present method since the freshly prepared growth solution can be constantly made available to the growing crystal. © 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim     

Epitaxy of CdTe on sapphire substrates with titanium buffer layers

The formation of a developed electrical relief on the sapphire substrate surface is investigated. A technique is proposed for introducing Ti⁴⁺ impurity atoms into the sapphire crystal lattice by depositing titanium layers with a thickness of about 5 nm and their annealing in air (oxidizing atmosphere) to a temperature of 1400°C. It is shown that this preliminary treatment of the sapphire substrate surface results in epitaxial growth of (111) СdTe films parallel to the sapphire (0001) plane at a temperature of 350°C.     

热屏间距对泡生法蓝宝石单晶生长影响研究

太空、军事和科研等高科技领域的持续发展极大促进了对蓝宝石晶体的需求,泡生法是蓝宝石晶体的主要制造方法之一;热场结构对所得蓝宝石晶体的质量具有重要影响.本文对采用泡生法工艺制造蓝宝石单晶过程中,具有内置7层氧化锆外置8层钼金属的新型热屏结构间距进行研究.通过数值模拟考察热屏间距对单晶炉功率、固-液界面形状和晶体热应力的影响确定了合理的热场结构;并与试验生产结果进行对比验证.结果表明:热屏间距增大使得单晶炉功率明显提升,并引起固-液界面凸度增大;而蓝宝石晶体热应力出现减小.综合考察三个影响因素的影响,最后确定热屏间距为5 mm时单晶炉能耗较低,可用于制造高质量的蓝宝石晶体.     

高熔点稀土倍半氧化钪(Sc2O3)晶体的生长

本文通过自主研发制造新型高温晶体生长炉,并采用热交换-温度梯度法的热场结构,从而克服了高温环境下坩埚污染。调节热场结构并引入循环气,增大了温度梯度并改善了结晶驱动力不足的问题。用热交换-温度梯度法生长了2英寸(1英寸=2.54 cm)级的氧化钪(Sc₂O₃)晶体,这一结果是目前已知的最大尺寸的倍半氧化物单晶。氧化钪晶体呈现无色透明,外形完整、内部无气泡或其他可观察到的宏观缺陷。尺寸为φ55 mm×50 mm。其中放肩部分高度15 mm,等径生长部分的高度为40 mm。块状晶体的XRD谱只有(222)与(444)峰,可判定为单晶体,双晶摇摆曲线半高宽(FWHM)为113″,显示较好的结晶性能。     

Growth of corundum single crystals by the top-seeded solution growth technique (TSSG)

Single crystals of corundum were grown by the top-seeded solution growth technique from a cryolite, Na₃AlF₆, solvent. The relationship between the growth rate (mg/h) of a crystal and the temperature difference (= supersaturation) or the rotation rate of a seed crystal was investigated, and optimum growth conditions for obtaining single crystals with good quality are discussed.     

温梯法白宝石晶体的缺陷研究

采用导向温梯法(TGT)生长出[0001]方向直径为76mm的白宝石晶体.利用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)观察晶体(0001)面的腐蚀坑形态,并对晶体内部的包裹物进行了能谱(EDS)分析.白宝石晶体中的生长缺陷主要为位错和包裹体等.Al2O3晶体(0001)面的位错腐蚀坑呈六角形,并且有台阶状结构.分析了(0001)面内的位错类型.确定了TGT法生长的白宝石内部的包裹物的主要成分为碳.     

Study on rapid growth of KH2PO4 and its characterization

Large size crystals of KH₂PO₄ (KDP) were grown by adopting rapid growth technique from point seeds in a 1500‐liter crystallizer which is used to grow KDP crystals by conventional method. The grown KDP crystal size can reach to 310 × 310 × 320 mm³ and the average growth rate was 8mm/day. The optic properties of the rapidly grown KDP crystals were characterized comparing with the KDP crystals grown by the traditional temperature reduction method. We found it that the optical quality of the KDP crystals we grown rapidly are not significantly different from those of KDP crystals grown by traditional method. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Growth of SiGe bulk crystals with uniform composition by utilizing feedback control system of the crystal–melt interface position for precise control of the growth temperature

We developed an automatic feedback control system of the crystal–melt interface position to keep the temperature at the interface constant during growth, and demonstrate its successful application to grow Ge-rich SiGe bulk crystals with uniform composition. In this system, the position of the crystal–melt interface was automatically detected by analyzing the images captured using in situ monitoring system based on charge-coupled-devices camera, and the pulling rate of the crucible was corrected at every 1 min. The system was found to be effective to keep the crystal–melt interface position during growth even when the variation of the growth rate is quite large. Especially, the interface position was kept for 470 h during growth of Ge-rich SiGe bulk crystal when we started with a long growth melt of 80 mm. As a result, a 23 mm-long Si_0.22Ge_0.78 bulk crystal with uniform composition was obtained thanks to the constancy of the growth temperature during growth through the control of the interface position. Our technique opens a possibility to put multicomponent bulk crystal in a practical use.