High-Temperature Solution Growth: Application to Laser and Nonlinear Optical Crystals

Abstract

Growth methods based on high-temperature solutions, traditionally also known as flux growth methods, and especially the top-seeded solution growth (TSSG) and liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) methods, are some of the most popular methods by which to grow single crystals. These methods have to be used when the grown materials melt incongruently, melt at very high temperatures, or suffer from polymorphic transitions below the crystallization temperature. In this chapter we review the main advances produced in these crystal growth techniques during recent years, both in bulk and epitaxial films, and for two families of oxide materials, specifically those commonly used for solid-state lasers and nonlinear optical crystals. We intend to focus on the application to the real problems related to crystal growth in solutions with different viscosities, while revisiting some of the main strategies developed to overcome these problems to enable growth of bulk single crystals and single-crystalline films with good optical quality.