Introduction to Crystal Growth Techniques

Man had admired crystals for long, as he had appreciated their beauty. The gems and crystals delivered by mother earth have always attracted our mankind, and the belief in the virtues of gems and some minerals dates back to at least two thousand years. The use of gems for ornamental purposes appears to be in practice since the birth of humankind. Today, crystals are the pillars of modern technology. Without crystals, there would be no electronics industry, no photonics industry, no fibre-optic communications, very little modern optical equipment and some very important gaps in conventional production engineering. In the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in crystal growth process, particularly in view of the increasing demand of materials for technological applications (Laudise 1975; Brice1986; Nalwa and Miyata 1996). The significance of crystal growth to electrical engineering, chemistry and physics is illustrated in Figure 1.1. Modern technology requires physicists, chemists, electrical engineers, metallurgists and crystal growers to assist each other at many levels. Crystal growth is a vital and fundamental part of materials science and engineering, since crystals of suitable size and perfection are required for fundamental data acquisition and for practical devices such as detectors, integrated circuits and for other applications