Produced is a large single crystal with no crystal grain boundary, which is a high-quality single crystal that has a uniform composition in both the vertical and horizontal directions at an optimum dopant concentration and contains only a small number of negative crystals and exsolution lamellae. A single-crystal production equipment includes at least: a quartz crucible in which a seed crystal is placed on its bottom; a powder raw material supply apparatus which supplies a powder raw material into the quartz crucible; and an infrared ray irradiation apparatus which applies an infrared ray to the powder raw material supplied into the quartz crucible from the powder raw material supply apparatus.

Produced is a large single crystal with no crystal grain boundary, which is a high-quality single crystal that has a uniform composition in both the vertical and horizontal directions at an optimum dopant concentration and contains only a small number of negative crystals and exsolution lamellae. A single-crystal production equipment includes at least: a quartz crucible in which a seed crystal is placed on its bottom; a powder raw material supply apparatus which supplies a powder raw material into the quartz crucible; and an infrared ray irradiation apparatus which applies an infrared ray to the powder raw material supplied into the quartz crucible from the powder raw material supply apparatus.

A compound strontium fluoroborate, nonlinear optical crystal of strontium fluoroborate, preparation method thereof; the chemical formula of the compound is SrB5O7F3, its molecular weight is 310.67, and it is prepared by solid-state reaction; the chemical formula of the crystal is SrB5O7F3, its molecular weight is 310.67, the crystal is of the orthorhombic series, the space group is Ccm21, and the crystal cell parameters are=10.016(6) , b=8.654(6)(4) , c=8.103(5) , Z=4, and V=702.4(8) 3. A SrB5O7F3 nonlinear optical crystal has uses in the preparation of a harmonic light output when doubling, tripling, quadrupling, quintupling, or sextupling the frequency of a 1064-nm fundamental-frequency light outputted by a Nd:YAG laser, or the generation of a deep-ultraviolet frequency doubling light output lower than 200 nm, or in the preparation of a frequency multiplier, upper or lower frequency converter, or an optical parametric oscillator.

A compound strontium fluoroborate, nonlinear optical crystal of strontium fluoroborate, preparation method thereof; the chemical formula of the compound is SrB5O7F3, its molecular weight is 310.67, and it is prepared by solid-state reaction; the chemical formula of the crystal is SrB5O7F3, its molecular weight is 310.67, the crystal is of the orthorhombic series, the space group is Ccm21, and the crystal cell parameters are=10.016(6) , b=8.654(6)(4) , c=8.103(5) , Z=4, and V=702.4(8) 3. A SrB5O7F3 nonlinear optical crystal has uses in the preparation of a harmonic light output when doubling, tripling, quadrupling, quintupling, or sextupling the frequency of a 1064-nm fundamental-frequency light outputted by a Nd:YAG laser, or the generation of a deep-ultraviolet frequency doubling light output lower than 200 nm, or in the preparation of a frequency multiplier, upper or lower frequency converter, or an optical parametric oscillator.

A furnace for electromagnetic casting a tubular-shaped silicon ingot is provided. The furnace includes a mold, outer and inner induction coils and a support member. The mold includes an outer crucible and an inner crucible. The outer crucible is annular-shaped. The inner crucible is disposed in the outer crucible and spaced away from the outer crucible to provide a gap between the inner crucible and the outer crucible. The mold is configured to receive granular silicon in the gap. The outer induction coil disposed around the outer crucible. The inner induction coil disposed in the inner crucible. The outer induction coil and the inner induction coil are configured to heat and melt the granular silicon in the mold to form a tubular-shaped silicon ingot. The support member is configured to hold and move a seed relative to the mold during formation of the tubular-shaped silicon ingot on the seed.

A method for producing a piezoelectric single crystal ingot shows small variation in the concentration of PbTiO.sub.3 in the growth direction of single crystal. A complete solid solution-type piezoelectric single crystal ingot is produced by using the Bridgman method, including: filling a starting material, wherein a relaxor having a compositional formula Pb(B.sub.1,B.sub.2)O.sub.3 is blended with lead titanate having a composition PbTiO.sub.3 to give a preset composition, into a crucible for growth; heating to the melting temperature to give a melted liquid layer; then moving the crucible for growth toward the low temperature side; and thus starting one-direction solidification from the lower part of the crucible to thereby produce a single crystal. During solidification, the feedstock containing the relaxor and lead titanate having a maximum grain size 3 mm is continuously supplied into the crucible.

A main crucible of molten semiconductor is replenished from a supply crucible maintained such that there are always two phases of solid and liquid semiconductor within the supply crucible. Heat added to melt the solid material results in the solid material changing phase to liquid, but will not result in any significant elevation in temperature of the liquid within the supply crucible. The temperature excursions are advantageously small, being less than that which would cause problems with the formed product. The solid product material acts as a sort of temperature buffer, to maintain the supply liquid temperature automatically and passively at or very near to the phase transition temperature. For silicon, excursions are kept to less than 90 C., and even as small as 50 C. The methods also are useful with germanium. Prior art silicon methods that entirely melt the semiconductor experience excursions exceeding 100 C.

A main crucible of molten semiconductor is replenished from a supply crucible maintained such that there are always two phases of solid and liquid semiconductor within the supply crucible. Heat added to melt the solid material results in the solid material changing phase to liquid, but will not result in any significant elevation in temperature of the liquid within the supply crucible. The temperature excursions are advantageously small, being less than that which would cause problems with the formed product. The solid product material acts as a sort of temperature buffer, to maintain the supply liquid temperature automatically and passively at or very near to the phase transition temperature. For silicon, excursions are kept to less than 90 C., and even as small as 50 C. The methods also are useful with germanium. Prior art silicon methods that entirely melt the semiconductor experience excursions exceeding 100 C.

A method includes depositing a layer of alloy particles including rare earth permanent magnet phase above a substrate, laser scanning the layer while cooling the substrate to melt the particles, selectively initiate crystal nucleation, and promote columnar grain growth in a same direction as an easy axis of the rare earth permanent magnet phase. The method also includes repeating the depositing and scanning to form bulk anisotropic rare earth alloy magnet with aligned columnar grains.

A method for printing a semiconductor material includes depositing a molten metal onto a substrate in an enclosed chamber to form a trace having a maximum height of 15 micrometers and/or a maximum width of 25 micrometers to 10 millimeters and/or a thin film having a maximum height of 15 micrometers. The method further includes reacting the molten metal with a gas phase species in the enclosed chamber to form the semiconductor material. The depositing the molten metal includes depositing a metal composition including the molten metal and an etchant or depositing the etchant separate from the molten metal in the enclosed chamber.