Sapphire shaped crystals for waveguiding, sensing and exposure applications

Publication date: Available online 28 November 2018Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of MaterialsAuthor(s): G.M. Katyba, K.I. Zaytsev, I.N. Dolganova, I.A. Shikunova, N.V. Chernomyrdin, S.O. Yurchenko, G.A. Komandin, I.V. Reshetov, V.V. Nesvizhevsky, V.N. KurlovAbstractSecond half of the XX century was marked by a rapid development of sapphire shaped crystal growth technologies, driven by the demands for fast, low-cost, and technologically reliable methods of producing sapphire crystals of complex shape. Numerous techniques of shaped crystal growth from a melt have been proposed relying on the Stepanov concept of crystal shaping. In this review, we briefly describe the development of growth techniques, with a strong emphasize on those that yield sapphire crystals featuring high volumetric and surface quality. A favorable combination of physical properties of sapphire (superior hardness and tensile strength, impressive thermal conductivity and chemical inertness, high melting point and thermal shock resistance, transparency to electromagnetic waves in a wide spectral range) with advantages of shaped crystal growth techniques (primarily, an ability to produce sapphire crystals with a complex geometry of cross-section, along with high volumetric and surface quality) allows fabricating various instruments for waveguiding, sensing, and exposure technologies. We discuss recent developments of high-tech instruments, which are based on sapphire shaped crystals a...

Source: Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials - November 29, 2018 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research