Process for growing crystals
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsIan R. A. Christie, Derek F. Croxall, Brian J. Isherwood
Life of this patent
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Abstract
According to this invention a process for forming a crystal of a substance comprises securing surfaces of two crystals (1) together with the axes of the crystals aligned and depositing said substance onto the joined crystals thereby causing them to grow into a single crystal substantially or entirely surrounding the registering regions (2) of said surfaces. A resultant crystal may be sectioned to provide large, single crystals (3) not containing a bonded region.
Claims10
A process for forming a crystal of a substance from a solution capable of depositing said substance, utilizing at least two seed crystals of said substance, the seed crystals defining crystallographic axes and being provided with respective flat surfaces, the orientations of the said surfaces with respect to the associated said axes being such that at least one pair of seed crystals may be interfaced at their said surfaces with a zero mutual crystallographic orientation;
- said process comprising the steps of mutually aligning said pair of seed crystals into said orientation, directly bonding their said flat surfaces together with an inert bonding material to form a seed crystal composite of locally uniform crystallographic orientation having at least one registering surface region, and depositing said substance from said solution on to said composite so as to substantially enclose said registering surface region.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.