ABSTRACT
Crystal growth from melt in essence is a monocomponent liquid-solid growth. Any material that is melting congruently or near congruently can be grown by melt techniques. Ideally, in monocomponent liquid-solid growth, since the rate of growth is not diffusion controlled, growth as such can be quite rapid and the purity of the resultant crystals can be quite high. It is essentially growth by controlled freezing; consequently, in comparison to other growth techniques, it is readily controllable. Except for the growth from aqueous solution, it is perhaps the earliest studied technique. Also, in all probability, it is the most exploited commercial process for single crystal growth, and because of this, sophistication and automation have been introduced into the process.
