Potassium lithium niobate single crystal with a dimension of 20mm×15mm×30mm was grown by EFG technique in our laboratory.Compared with Czochralski method for the growth of KLN crystals,EFG technique possesses the following merits.Crack of crystals can be weakened during the lowering of temperature and the crystals free of crack can be obtained.The crystals have no rotation,the growth striation caused by the rotation of the crystals can be eliminated.With action of capillary from a die hole,the convective effect of melt at solid liquid interface can be reduced,therefore the homogeneity of crystals is better than that of crystals obtained by Czochralski method.The growth striation parallels each other and is perpendicular to the growth direction,so the good blue SHG can be obtained when ground wave goes through the KLN crystals.Since capillary force does not fully counteract the convective effect,the inhomogeneity of crystals can’t completely be eliminated.The low SHG conversion efficiency of KLN crystals is mainly caused by inhomogeneneity of crystals.For the growth of incongruent melting crystals,the growth rate is limited by the rejection of impurity,this also makes homogeneity of composition become bad.In the growth of KLN crystals by EFG technique,the fluctuation of the temperature at solid liquid interface should be enough small,and the film thickness of melt should be proper.Too thick film of melt makes the process of crystal growth unstable;too thin film of melt can lead to the constitutional supercooling.
