Knowledge & Service >> Growth Methods of Synthetic Sapphire |
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| Synthetic Sapphire - Introduction |
| Synthetic sapphire is a duplication of natural sapphire chemically, physically and optically, but without nature's contaminants or inclusions, so synthetic sapphire is much higher purity and water clear. Sapphire is a single crystal, so it cannot be molded, drawn or cast. It can be grown into specific shapes. When heated to about 2050°C the powder melts and can then be formed into a single crystal using any of several crystal growth methods. The selected synthetic sapphire growth methods depend on the appropriate application. |
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| Growth Methods |
| Today, there are many methods of manufacturing single crystal sapphire including Kyropoulos method, Edge Fed Growth (EFG) method, and Heat Exchanger Method (HEM). These methods produce sapphire with different specifications such as size, thickness, and inclusions.
Synthetic sapphire can be grown in all common crystal orientations including "A", "C", "R", “M” plane. |
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| Stepanov Method (EFG) |
| The EFG method, also called melt extraction or crystal pulling, is a single-crystal growing technique for synthesizing pure, monocrystalline materials. |
| The EFG method provides the ability to produce various shapes such as sapphire substrates for integrated circuits, sapphire single crystals with predefined diameter and sapphire tubes for laser and high-pressure Na lamps. EFG method produce crystal material with low to medium optical quality is most often used for mechanical, industrial and lesser-grade optical applications. |
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| Kyropoulos method |
| This growth technique is ideal for synthetic sapphire with low thermal conductivity and a high degree of thermal expansion. |
| The Kyropoulos method yields large-diameter sapphire boules of outstanding optical quality due to its high purity. The sapphire boules can be cut to any crystallographic orientation or plane. Kyropolous grown synthetic sapphire is ideal for many optical applications including: |
| Electronics (substrates, IR detectors, fiber-optic lenses) |
| Optics (windows, missile domes, lenses, probes, lasers) |
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| HEM Method |
| HEM method create synthetic Sapphire with outstanding transmission and homogeneity. |
| Due to its high optical transmission, low transmitted wavefront distortion and outstanding mechanical-strength properties, HEM Sapphire is widely used for high-precision sapphire windows to deliver high levels of performance and reliability |
