| Abstract: | The generation of bubble‐inclusions during BaB2O4 (BBO) crystal growth from high temperature solution has been optically observed by an in situ observation technique. It was found that bubbles are formed from the peripheries of some hexagonal defects in the (0001) plane of the growing crystal, which may be caused by the evaporation of the air‐opened interface at the high temperature. In addition, atomic force microscope (AFM) was used to investigate the distribution of bubbles. Results revealed that the bubble generation and distribution depend strongly on the microscopic structure of the interface: on a rough interface, bubbles are easily formed and grow rapidly; however, they are greatly suppressed by step trains on a vicinal interface. In the latter case, the height value of a bubble is close to that of the step, which is in the order of several tens of nanometers. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) |
