Bridgeman method- crystals

Fig. 5.9 Ne field ion images of a GP[1] zone emerging from a (024) plane of an Al-4 wt% Cu alloy. This alloy was grown by Bridgeman method. After a homogenizing treatment at 793 K for 1.7 x lOf5 s, single crystal samples with a longer axis parallel to [001] were prepared. They were quenched into ice water and then aged at 403 K for 6 x 104 s under the tensile stress of 73.5 MPa along the [001]. Between a and b, 11 (024) layers were field evaporated, and between b and c, 16 more layers were evaporated. The distance between two Cu atoms should be 9.06 A as is shown in d. (Courtesy of M. Wada.)...

See T.C. Harman J. Electron. Mater. 1, 230 (1972), for a report of a recent method and for references to methods developed earlier. Crystals for detectors are still grown often by methods closely related to the modified Bridgeman method developed originally by P.W.Kruse and coworkers in the early 1960s at the Honeywell Corporate Research Center see P.W.Kruse Appl. Opt. 4, 687 (1965)... 

Figure 36 Schematic of the Bridgeman crystal growth method (a). Vemeuil crystal growth method (b)...

Whereas the Czochralski method requires rather elaborate equipment to obtain single crystals of good quality, the Bridgeman (Stockbarger) method uses a fairly simple apparatus. This is shown in the following diagram ... 

The problems in getting a "seed" to form in the Bridgeman crucible was, perhaps, the basis for a new and different type of crystal growth based upon a variation of the Kjnropolous method. It was noted that if one could get the melt to "super-cool" (that is- not crystallize when the melt temperature was lowered just slightly below the crystallization temperature), one could then induce rapid crystallization by "touching" the surface of the super-cooled melt with a seed of the same material. In... 

---