Morphology Control of NdP5 O 14 Single Crystals Grown from Polyphosphoric Acids

Abstract

Neodymium pentaphosphate (NdP5Oz4) single crystals are grown from polyphosphoric acids by controlling polymerization rate of the acids as a main growth parameter, Solubility of NdP5OI4 in polyphosphoric acids as well as morphology and growth rate of NdP5014 crystals are empirically correlated with polymerization rate, expressed by mean-condensed rate in this study. Based on thedata for epitaxial growth rates along <100>, <010>, and <001> axes, it becomes clear that morphological change of spontaneously nucleated crystals occurs because each axis growth rate shows a different polymerization rate dependence. The influence of temperature gradient given to phosphoric acid is also investigated. As a result, the shape of spontaneously nucleated NdP5Oz4 crystals can be arbitrarily controlled with rather high reproducibility.

Crystal chemistry of ultraphosphates

“…Nature of the investigation PrP 5 Oi4 Chemical synthesis and crystal growth of laser quality PrP 5 0 14 by Borkowski, Grzesiak, Kaczmarek, Kaluski, Karolczak and Szymanski (1978) NdP 5 0 14 Crystal growth conditions and optical properties of NdP 5 Oi 4 by Tofield, Weber, Oamen and Pasteur (1974) Study by Danielmayer, Jeser, Schönherr and Stetter (1974) of the growth of NdP 5 Oi4 crystals, optimization of the growth parameters for the production of laser quality and laser size crystals and observation of the effect of addition of various impurities on the lifetime Study of the morphology control of NdP 5 0 14 single crystals grown from polyphosphoric acid acids by Kasano and Furuhata (1979) Crystal growth of NdP 5 0i 4 and Nd^La,! -,)Ps0i 4 by Marais, Chinh, Savary and Budin (1976) Method for growing large laser quality Nd^Ln,!…”