Crystal growth

Crystallization
Fundamentals
Concepts
Methods and technology
Schematic of a small part of a growing crystal. The crystal is of (blue) cubic particles on a simple cubic lattice. The top layer is incomplete, only ten of the sixteen lattice positions are occupied by particles. A particle in the fluid (shown with red edges) is joining the crystal, growing the crystal by one particle. It is joining the lattice at the point where its energy will be a minimum, which is in the corner of the incomplete top layer (on top of the particle shown with yellow edges). Its energy will be a minimum because in that position it has three neighbors (one below, one to its left and one above right) which it will interact with. All other positions on an incomplete crystal layer have only one or two neighbours.

A crystal is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. Crystal growth is a major stage of a crystallization process, and consists of the addition of new atoms, ions, or polymer strings into the characteristic arrangement of the crystalline lattice.[1][2] The growth typically follows an initial stage of either homogeneous or heterogeneous (surface catalyzed) nucleation, unless a "seed" crystal, purposely added to start the growth, was already present.

The action of crystal growth yields a crystalline solid whose atoms or molecules are close packed, with fixed positions in space relative to each other. The crystalline state of matter is characterized by a distinct structural rigidity and very high resistance to deformation (i.e. changes of shape and/or volume). Most crystalline solids have high values both of Young's modulus and of the shear modulus of elasticity. This contrasts with most liquids or fluids, which have a low shear modulus, and typically exhibit the capacity for macroscopic viscous flow.

  1. ^ Markov, Ivan (2016). Crystal Growth For Beginners: Fundamentals Of Nucleation, Crystal Growth And Epitaxy (Third ed.). Singapore: World Scientific. doi:10.1142/10127. ISBN 978-981-3143-85-2.
  2. ^ Pimpinelli, Alberto; Villain, Jacques (2010). Physics of Crystal Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. https://www.cambridge.org/bg/academic/subjects/physics/condensed-matter-physics-nanoscience-and-mesoscopic-physics/physics-crystal-growth?format=PB. ISBN 9780511622526.