Introduction to the Series

Welcome to the SPIE Field Guides—a series of publications written directly for the practicing engineer or scientist. Many textbooks and professional reference books cover optical principles and techniques in depth. The aim of the SPIE Field Guides is to distill this information, providing readers with a handy desk or briefcase reference that provides basic, essential information about optical principles, techniques, or phenomena, including definitions and descriptions, key equations, illustrations, application examples, design considerations, and additional resources. A significant effort will be made to provide a consistent notation and style between volumes in the series.

Each SPIE Field Guide addresses a major field of optical science and technology. The concept of these Field Guides is a format-intensive presentation based on figures and equations supplemented by concise explanations. In most cases, this modular approach places a single topic on a page, and provides full coverage of that topic on that page. Highlights, insights, and rules of thumb are displayed in sidebars to the main text. The appendices at the end of each Field Guide provide additional information such as related material outside the main scope of the volume, key mathematical relationships, and alternative methods. While complete in their coverage, the concise presentation may not be appropriate for those new to the field.

The SPIE Field Guides are intended to be living documents. The modular page-based presentation format allows them to be updated and expanded. We are interested in your suggestions for new Field Guide topics as well as what material should be added to an individual volume to make these Field Guides more useful to you. Please contact us at fieldguides@SPIE.org.

John E. Greivenkamp, Series Editor

College of Optical Sciences

The University of Arizona

The Field Guide Series

Preface

Crystal growth is the art and science of growing crystals that are pillars of modern technological developments. It acts as a bridge between science and technology. Crystals are used in lasers, semiconducting devices, computers, magnetic and optical devices, optical processing applications, pharmaceuticals, and a host of other devices. Crystal growth requires technical skills in chemistry, physics, and materials science.

This Field Guide covers the basic phenomena and techniques for growing bulk single crystals of high-technology materials from solution, melt, and vapors. Some techniques for growing crystal in the microgravity environment of space are also presented. The idea of electronic miniaturization was developed during the mid-1950s due to the understanding and growth of doped silicon crystals. In principle, atoms are stacked in three dimensions in saturated solutions, melt, and vapors. It requires knowledge of temperature control, motion control, heating-furnace design, raising and lowering mechanisms, and phase diagrams.

We hope that the included examples inspire readers with ideas to grow new materials for new devices. Any crystal growth process is complex; it depends on many parameters that can interact. The complexity makes it difficult to reproduce a process that is known to work and makes the processing of new materials much more difficult than it appears superficially. Crystal growth is sometimes frustrating, but like other crafts, it can provide great satisfaction.

Ashok K. Batra

Mohan D. Aggarwal

June 2018

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, this book would not be possible without the inspiration of my dear father, who advised me to write this demanding scientific resource. I express my gratitude to him and to my late mother for instilling important traits in me, such as perseverance, hard work, and humility. I am forever indebted to my lovely wife, Nutan, who has been very supportive and caring throughout the process. I am eternally grateful to my close-knit family, including my adorable younger brother, Vijay, and my sister, Savita, who have supported me wholeheartedly throughout my career and in authoring this Field Guide. I am grateful to Profs. S. C. Mathur and R. B. Lal for sharing their valuable insights and guidance.

I would like to express my appreciation to the Alabama A&M University administration, and the faculty and staff of the Physics Department for their general support and the friendly atmosphere that they create. Special thanks to graphic designer Conner Roberson for preparation of the figures and to Sheral L. Carter for her support. Additionally, I would like to acknowledge contributions from the many research students whose work is cited. Partial support of the NSF grant-RISE/HRD #1546965 is gratefully acknowledged.

Ashok K. Batra

I appreciate the support for the present work given by a number of federally funded projects on bulk crystal growth of various high-technology materials on Earth and in microgravity from NASA, SMDC, and NSF, including partial support of the NSF project for the Alliance for Physics Excellence DUE 123 8192. The contribution and illuminating discussions with colleagues and graduate students, as well as the keen interest and encouragement of the Alabama A&M University administration, are also acknowledged.

Mohan D. Aggarwal