In various embodiments, controlled heating and/or cooling conditions are utilized during the fabrication of aluminum nitride single crystals and aluminum nitride bulk polycrystalline ceramics. Thermal treatments may also be utilized to control properties of aluminum nitride crystals after fabrication.

A silicon carbide single crystal manufacturing apparatus includes a crucible constituted by a crucible body and a crucible lid and a base having a crucible lid side surface supported by the lower surface of the crucible lid, and a seed crystal mounting surface on which the seed crystal is mounted and which is a surface on the opposite side of the crucible lid side surface, wherein the base is made of graphite material, the area of the seed crystal mounting surface is larger than the area of the crucible lid side surface, and the base has at least of a portion in which the cross-sectional area orthogonal to the vertical direction connecting the crucible lid side surface and the seed crystal mounting surface is gradually reduced, and a portion that is getting smaller gradually, from the surface of the seed crystal mounting surface toward the crucible lid side surface.

The present disclosure relates to P-type SnSe crystal capable of being used as thermoelectric refrigeration material and a preparation method thereof. The material is a Na-doped and Pb-alloyed SnSe crystal. A molar ratio of Sn, Se, Pb and Na is (1-x-y):1:y:x, where 0.015≤x≤0.025 and 0.05≤y≤0.11. The P-type SnSe crystal provided by the present disclosure is capable of being used as the thermoelectric refrigeration material. A power factor PF of the P-type SnSe crystal at a room temperature is ≥70 μWcm.sup.−1K.sup.−2, and ZT at the room temperature is ≥1.2. A single-leg temperature difference measurement platform built on the basis of the obtained SnSe crystal may realize a refrigeration temperature difference of 17.6 K at a current of 2 A. The present disclosure adopts a modified directional solidification method and uses a continuous temperature region for slow cooling to grow a crystal to obtain the large-sized high-quality SnSe crystal.

A method of producing silicon carbide is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of providing a sublimation furnace comprising a furnace shell, at least one heating element positioned outside the furnace shell, and a hot zone positioned inside the furnace shell surrounded by insulation. The hot zone comprises a crucible with a silicon carbide precursor positioned in the lower region and a silicon carbide seed positioned in the upper region. The hot zone is heated to sublimate the silicon carbide precursor, forming silicon carbide on the bottom surface of the silicon carbide seed. Also disclosed is the sublimation furnace to produce the silicon carbide as well as the resulting silicon carbide material.

A method of single crystal growth includes disposing a polycrystalline source material in a chamber of a single crystal growth apparatus, disposing a seed layer in the chamber of the single crystal growth apparatus, wherein the seed layer is fixed below a lid of the single crystal growth apparatus, heating the polycrystalline source material by a heater of the single crystal growth apparatus to deposit a semiconductor material layer on the seed layer, and after depositing the semiconductor material layer, providing a coolant gas at a backside of the lid to cool down the seed layer and the semiconductor material layer.

A method for making LNO film, including the steps of identifying a substrate, identifying a deposition target, placing the substrate and deposition target in a deposition environment, evolving target material into the deposition environment, and depositing evolved target material onto the substrate to yield an LNO film. The deposition environment defines a temperature of between 500 degrees Celsius and 750 degrees Celsius and a pressure of about 10.sup.−6 Torr. A seed or buffer layer may be first deposited onto the substrate, wherein the seed layer is about 30 mole percent gold and about 70 LiNbO.sub.3.

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.

The disclosure provides a silicon carbide seed crystal and a method of manufacturing a silicon carbide ingot. The silicon carbide seed crystal has a silicon surface and a carbon surface opposite to the silicon surface. A difference D between a basal plane dislocation density BPD1 of the silicon surface and a basal plane dislocation density BPD2 of the carbon surface satisfies the following formula (1), a local thickness variation (LTV) of the silicon carbide seed crystal is 2.5 μm or less, and a stacking fault (SF) density of the silicon carbide seed crystal is 10 EA/cm.sup.2 or less:

D=(BPD1−BPD2)/BPD1≤25%  (1).

The present disclosure relates to P-type SnSe crystal capable of being used as thermoelectric refrigeration material and a preparation method thereof. The material is a Na-doped and Pb-alloyed SnSe crystal. A molar ratio of Sn, Se, Pb and Na is (1-x-y):1:y:x, where 0.015≤x≤0.025 and 0.05≤y≤0.11. The P-type SnSe crystal provided by the present disclosure is capable of being used as the thermoelectric refrigeration material. A power factor PF of the P-type SnSe crystal at a room temperature is ≥70 μWcm.sup.−1K.sup.−2, and ZT at the room temperature is ≥1.2. A single-leg temperature difference measurement platform built on the basis of the obtained SnSe crystal may realize a refrigeration temperature difference of 17.6 K at a current of 2 A. The present disclosure adopts a modified directional solidification method and uses a continuous temperature region for slow cooling to grow a crystal to obtain the large-sized high-quality SnSe crystal.

The present invention provides a crucible and a SiC single crystal growth apparatus capable of improving the efficiency of using source materials. The crucible includes a lid and a container. The container includes a bottom facing the lid. The bottom includes a recess which is recessed towards the lid.