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. Provided is a single-crystal production equipment which includes, at least: a raw material supply apparatus which supplies a granular raw material to a melting apparatus positioned therebelow; the melting apparatus heats and melts the granular raw material to generate a raw material melt and supplies the raw material melt into a single-crystal production crucible positioned therebelow; and a crystallization apparatus which includes the single-crystal production crucible in which a seed single crystal is placed on the bottom, and a first infrared ray irradiation equipment which irradiates an infrared ray to the upper surface of the seed single crystal in the single-crystal production crucible, and the single-crystal production equipment is configured such that the raw material melt is dropped into a melt formed by irradiating the upper surface of the seed single crystal with the infrared ray, and a single crystal is allowed to precipitate out of the thus formed mixed melt.

A system and method provides a piezoelectric stack arrangement for reduced driving voltage while maintaining a driving level for active piezoelectric materials. A stack arrangement of d.sub.36 shear mode <011>single crystals of both air X-cut and Y-cut 1:45 (20) arrangement are bonded with discrete conductive pillars to form a shear crystal stack. The bonding area between the neighboring crystal parts is minimized. The bonding pillars are positioned at less than a total surface are of the single crystal forming the stack. The stack fabrication is facilitated with a precision assembly system, where crystal parts are placed to desired locations on an assembly fixture for alignment following the preset operation steps. With the reduced clamping effect from bonding due to lower surface coverage of the discrete conductive pillars, such a piezoelectric d.sub.36 shear crystal stack exhibits a reduced driving voltage while maintaining a driving level and substantial and surprisingly improved performance.

A system and method provides a piezoelectric stack arrangement for reduced driving voltage while maintaining a driving level for active piezoelectric materials. A stack arrangement of d.sub.36 shear mode <011>single crystals of both air X-cut and Y-cut 1:45 (20) arrangement are bonded with discrete conductive pillars to form a shear crystal stack. The bonding area between the neighboring crystal parts is minimized. The bonding pillars are positioned at less than a total surface are of the single crystal forming the stack. The stack fabrication is facilitated with a precision assembly system, where crystal parts are placed to desired locations on an assembly fixture for alignment following the preset operation steps. With the reduced clamping effect from bonding due to lower surface coverage of the discrete conductive pillars, such a piezoelectric d.sub.36 shear crystal stack exhibits a reduced driving voltage while maintaining a driving level and substantial and surprisingly improved performance.

An induction furnace assembly comprising a chamber having a mold; a primary inductive coil coupled to the chamber; a susceptor surrounding the chamber between the primary inductive coil and the mold; and a shield material contained in a reservoir coupled to or proximate the mold between the susceptor and the mold; the shield material configured to attenuate a portion of an electromagnetic flux generated by the primary induction coil that is not attenuated by the susceptor.

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 single crystal composition includes an alkali halide crystal doped with a divalent element in the amount of 0.5 to 5 weight percent, the doped crystal having an optical transmission of at least 45% at at least one wavelength. An alkali halide doped with at least one of europium and ytterbium is particularly useful as a scintillator.

A single crystal composition includes an alkali halide crystal doped with a divalent element in the amount of 0.5 to 5 weight percent, the doped crystal having an optical transmission of at least 45% at at least one wavelength. An alkali halide doped with at least one of europium and ytterbium is particularly useful as a scintillator.

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.

In the present invention, a crucible formed of SiC as a main component is used as a container for a SiC solution. A metal element M (M is at least one metal element selected from at least one of a first group consisting of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho and Lu, a second group consisting of Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni and Cu and a third group consisting of Al, Ga, Ge, Sn, Pb and Zn) is added to the SiC solution and the crucible is heated to elute Si and C, which are derived from a main component SiC of the crucible, from a high-temperature surface region of the crucible in contact with the SiC solution, into the SiC solution. In this way, precipitation of a SiC polycrystal on a surface of the crucible in contact with the SiC solution is suppressed.