Melt Technique Skull Melting

The cost of cubic Zr02 crystals varies depending on supply and demand. The selling price for single crystals is only 0.80g . This makes them a low-cost commodity material for the gem trade and necessitates large-scale production to make the process economically feasible. However, once the crystals have been oriented, cut, and polished for use as substrates for thin-film growth (e.g., the high-temperature superconductors) the equivalent cost 

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Skull Melting. Skull melting, or the cold cmcible technique, is used for high melting point materials. Zirconia [1314-23 ] has such a... 

Cubic Zirconia. As of this writing, cubic zirconia [1314-23-4], Zr02, is the best diamond imitation available (Table 3). It is marketed under such names as CZ, Cerene, Cubic zirconium, Diamonair II, Diamonique III, Fianite, etc, and grown by the skull melting technique (2,5,13). Pure Zr02 is... 

An alternative method for growing crystals of reactive high-melting materials is the skull melting technique in which the molten charge is surrounded by powder of the same... 

The technique and past history of skull melting has been described in several articles from this and other laboratories.12-19 Basically, radio frequency power from a commercial power supply (50 KW at 3-5 MHz) is transferred to a work coil tightly wrapped about a skull crucible consisting of a set of cold fingers that... 

Montforte, F.R., Swanekamp, F.W., and Van Uitert, L.G. (1961) Radio-frequency technique for puUing oxide crystals without employing a crucible susceptor, J. Appl. Phys. 32, 959. First application of the skull melting process combined with crystal pulling to produce single crystals. 

Why are crystals of cubic zirconia grown by the skull melting technique ... 

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