Investigation of single crystal growth of GaPO_4 by the flux method

摘要

GaPO_4 crystals have been grown by a spontaneous nucleation method and the top-seeded solution growth method using three different solvents, 3MoO_3-Li_2O, 3MoO_3-K_2O and 2KPO _3-5MoO_3-3LiF. All of the as-grown crystals were characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction. The results show that all the crystals were well crystallized and belong to the point group 32, and 2KPO_3-5MoO_3-3LiF flux is the best for nucleation and growth of transparent GaPO_4 crystals. The infrared spectrum of GaPO_4 single crystal obtained by the flux method shows that there is no incorporation of OH groups during the crystallization, which is beneficial for high temperature piezoelectric applications.