Growth of BBO and LBO crystals by the flux-pulling method

This paper reports the growth of the novel NLO materials β-BaB2O4 (BBO) and LiB3O5 (LBO) crystals produced by the flux pulling method. It is found that higher rates of growth with excellent quality are available for both crystals compared with flux-seeding methods. Compounds have been systematically selected as the flux for the improvement of the crystals growth due to the high viscosity of the melts in the BaO:B2O3 and Li2O-B2O3 systems. Our study of the viscosity of the melt in the Li2O:B2O3 system indicates that the phenomenon of the Boron Abnormality has some influence on the viscosity of the melt, and therefore some ordinary metal oxides, such as alkali metal oxide and alkaline-earth metal oxide which could be selected as the flux for the BBO crystal growth, can hardly be used as the flux for the LBO crystal growth.