Rapid Growth of a Cuboid DKDP (KDxH2-xPO4) Crystal

The pyramid-prism interface in "point-seed" rapidly grown DKDP (KDxH2-xPO4) crystals affects the quality of tripler-cut samples used in inertial confinement fusion devices. In this study, a cuboid DKDP crystal without a pyramidal sector was rapidly grown. The quality of the cuboid DKDP crystal was evaluated by measuring the deuterium homogeneity, crystalline quality, transmission spectrum, and laser-induced damage performance. The total number N of tripler-cut samples that can be obtained from the cuboid DKDP crystal is easily calculated. The size of the tripler-cut sample is approximately equal to the cross-section of this cuboid DKDP crystal. Moreover, as this cuboid DKDP crystal has a regular shape, calculating the mass of the crystal and accurately controlling the supersaturation of the solution during growth is easy. The successful crystal growth using this proposed approach establishes the possibility of growing large-aperture cuboid DKDP crystals. Currently, research on the rapid growth of a cuboid DKDP crystal with an aperture of more than 40 cm is underway.