Effect of cerium on the growth and crystalline quality of KDP crystals

The effect of the addition of cerium in potassium dihydrogen phosphate, grown from aqueous solution by the temperature lowering method using bi-direction seed rotation technique has been studied. The optimal addition of trivalent cerium ions considerably prevents other bivalent transition metal ions (Co, Ni, Mn) from entering into the crystal lattice and results in reduced defects and dislocations. A simple microcontroller based bi-directional accelerated seed rotation control setup is designed and employed to avoid stagnant regions or re-circulating flows in the solution. High-resolution XRD analysis of the (002) plane reveals that the Ce3+ added KDP exhibited better crystalline perfection and contains less dislocation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.