Single crystal growing method
AssigneeNGK Insulators, Ltd.
InventorsMinoru Imaeda, Akihiko Honda, Katsuhiro Imai, Yuichiro Imanishi, Nobuyuki Kokune, Shoji Sogo, Kazuaki Yamaguchi, Tetsuo Taniuchi
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Abstract
A process is disclosed for continuously producing a single crystal by drawing downwardly a melt of a single crystal raw material, wherein a single crystal body grown from the melt is continuously pulled downwardly, and a plurality of single crystal products are continuously formed by intermittently cutting the single crystal body being downwardly moved.
Claims30
A process for continuously producing single crystals products, comprising the steps of:
- drawing downwardly a melt of a single crystal raw material through a nozzle extending from a crucible containing the melt, said nozzle having a single crystal growing-section, whereby a single crystal body is grown from the melt along the single crystal growing-section;
- continuously downwardly moving the single crystal body;
- and
- continuously forming a plurality of single crystal products by intermittently cutting the single crystal body being downwardly moved.
An oxide-series single crystal producing process comprising the steps of initially charging a raw material for the oxide-series single crystal in a crucible, melting the raw material in the crucible, bringing a seed crystal into contact with the melt, and growing an oxide-series single crystal body while the melt is being downwardly drawn, wherein;
- said process is carried out by using a producing apparatus including the crucible, a nozzle portion extending from the crucible, and a downwardly directed single crystal-growing section at a distal end of the nozzle portion, and (ii) a temperature of the crucible and a temperature of the single crystal-growing section are independently controlled.
An oxide-series single crystal-producing process comprising the steps of melting a raw material for an oxide series single crystal in a melting crucible;
- continuously feeding the melt of the raw material to a single crystal-growing crucible having a volume smaller than that of the melting crucible through an opening provided in the melting crucible;
- contacting a seed crystal to the melt at a drawing hole provided at the single crystal-growing crucible;
- and growing an oxide-series single crystal body, while drawing the melt downwardly.
An oxide-series single crystal-producing Apparatus comprising a melting crucible adapted for melting a raw material forming an oxide-series single crystal and having an opening, and a single crystal-growing crucible having a volume smaller than that of the melting crucible and provided with a drawing hole, wherein the raw material is melted in the melting crucible, and is continuously fed into the single crystal-growing crucible through said opening, a seed crystal is contacted with the melt at said drawing hole of the growing crucible, and the oxide-series single crystal is grown, while the melt is being drawn downwardly through said opening.
An oxide-series single crystal-producing process comprising the steps of feeding a raw material for an oxide-series single crystal into a crucible, melting the raw material in the crucible, contacting a seed crystal with the resulting melt, and growing an oxide-series single crystal body from the melt, wherein a laser beam is irradiated upon the oxide-series single crystal body, an output light beam from the oxide-series single crystal body is measured, and a composition ratio of the raw material to be fed to the crucible is controlled based on the measured output light beam.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.