A SiC single crystal is produced by impregnating a molten alloy of silicon and a metallic element M that increases carbon solubility into a SiC sintered body to form a SiC crucible, placing silicon and M in the crucible and heating the crucible to melt the silicon and M and form a Si—C solution, dissolving silicon and carbon in the solution from surfaces of the crucible in contact with the solution, contacting a SiC seed crystal with the top of the solution to grow a first SiC single crystal on the SiC seed crystal by a solution process, and bulk growing a second SiC single crystal on a face of the solution-grown first SiC single crystal by a sublimation or gas process. This method enables a low-dislocation, high-quality SiC single crystal to be produced by a vapor phase process.

A single crystal growth apparatus to grow a single crystal of a gallium oxide-based semiconductor. The apparatus includes a crucible that includes a seed crystal section to accommodate a seed crystal, and a growing crystal section which is located on the upper side of the seed crystal section and in which the single crystal is grown by crystallizing a raw material melt accommodated therein, a tubular susceptor surrounding the seed crystal section and also supporting the crucible from below, and a molybdenum disilicide heating element to melt a raw material in the growing crystal section to obtain the raw material melt. The susceptor includes a thick portion at a portion in a height direction that is thicker and has a shorter horizontal distance from the seed crystal section than other portions. The thick portion surrounds at least a portion of the seed crystal section in the height direction.

A method for simultaneously manufacturing more than one single crystal of a semiconductor material by physical vapor transport (PVT) includes connecting a pair of reactors to a vacuum pump system by a common vacuum channel and creating and/or controlling, with the vacuum pump system, a common gas phase condition in the inner chambers of the pair of reactors. Each reactor has an inner chamber adapted to accommodate a PVT growth structure for growth of a semiconductor single crystal.

A quartz glass crucible including bottom, curved, and straight body portions, where the quartz glass crucible includes an outer layer including opaque quartz glass containing bubbles, and an inner layer including transparent quartz glass, the outer layer fabricated from different types of raw material powder, the outer layer having regions sectioned by bubble content densities, and bubble content densities of two outer layer adjacent regions, when d.sub.a (pcs/mm.sup.3) is defined as content density of a region “a” having a greater content density, and d.sub.b (pcs/mm.sup.3) is defined as content density of a region “b” having a smaller content density, a difference D=(d.sub.a−d.sub.b)/d.sub.b between content densities of the two regions is 10% or more.

The invention provides a SiC single crystal production apparatus with high uniformity of temperature distribution in a crystal growth vessel. The SiC single crystal production apparatus includes a crystal growth vessel containing SiC raw material; an insulation part covering the periphery of the crystal growth vessel; a heater used to heat the crystal growth vessel; and a holding member used to hold the crystal growth vessel, wherein the crystal growth vessel is held in a suspended state by the holding member.

Methods for producing a single crystal silicon ingot are disclosed. The ingot is doped with boron using solid-phase boric acid as the source of boron. Boric acid may be used to counter-dope the ingot during ingot growth. Ingot puller apparatus that use a solid-phase dopant are also disclosed. The solid-phase dopant may be disposed in a receptacle that is moved closer to the surface of the melt or a vaporization unit may be used to produce a dopant gas from the solid-phase dopant.

A method for producing Si ingot single crystal including a Si ingot single crystal growing step, a temperature gradient controlling step and a continuous growing step is provided. In the growing step, the Si ingot single crystal is grown in silicon melt in crucible, and the growing step includes providing a low-temperature region in the Si melt and providing a silicon seed to contact the melt surface of the silicon melt to start crystal growth, and silicon single crystal grows along the melt surface of the silicon melt and toward the inside of the silicon melt. In the temperature gradient controlling step, the under-surface temperature gradient of the silicon single crystal is G1, the above-surface temperature gradient of the silicon single crystal is G2, G1 and G2 satisfy: G2/G1<6. The step of controlling the temperature gradient of silicon single crystal is repeated to obtain the Si ingot single crystal.

A fused quartz crucible for pulling a single crystal of silicon by the Czochralski technique, has an inner side with an inner layer of fused quartz that forms a surface, the inner layer being provided with a crystallization promoter which on heating of the fused quartz crucible during use, in crystal pulling, causes crystallization of fused quartz to form b-cristobalite, wherein the concentration C of synthetically obtained SiO.sub.2 at a distance d from the surface is greater than the concentration of synthetically obtained SiO.sub.2 at a distance d2 from the surface, where d2 is greater than d. Multiple crystals can be grown while maintaining high crystal quality.

A quartz glass crucible 1 includes: a quartz glass crucible body 10 having a cylindrical side wall portion 10a, a curved bottom portion 10b, and a corner portion 10c which has a larger curvature than that of the bottom portion 10b and connects the side wall portion 10a and the bottom portion 10b to each other; and an inner-surface coating film 13A which contains a crystallization accelerator and is formed on an inner surface 10i of the quartz glass crucible body 10, in which the inner surface 10i of the quartz glass crucible body 10 is under compressive stress. The quartz glass crucible has high durability even at a high temperature during a single crystal pull-up step and is capable of reducing a generation ratio of pinholes in a silicon single crystal.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a crystalline solid electrolyte having a small particle diameter and also having a high ionic conductivity and containing a lithium element, a sulfur element, a phosphorus element and a halogen element, the method including a complexing step of mixing a solid electrolyte raw material and a complexing agent in a liquid phase, wherein the method includes a mixing step of obtaining a precursor containing a lithium element, a sulfur element, and a phosphorus element; and a crystallization step of heating the precursor in a solvent using a pressure-resistant container or while refluxing.