• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.41 no.9
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• pp.677-683
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• 2004

Nd:LLM (Nd:LiLa(MoO$_4$)$_2$) single crystals for the laser host material were grown by the Czochralski method. The Nd:LLM grown single crystals cracked easily, and the reasons of cracks are generally related with phase transition, incongruent melting, chemical heterogeneity of composition, geometric thermal structures of imbalance and growth direction. We confirmed that phase transition is not observed by TG-DTA thermal analysis, and the XRD analysis revealed congruent melting in our products. It was confirmed that the volatilization of Li$_2$O composition is the important reason of chemical heterogeneity. The geometric thermal profile of the resistance furnace of our own design was controlled with a crucible height. Also, Nd:LLM crystal affected growth direction, and was the best quality in case of (101) growth direction. The distribution and effective distribution coefficient of Nd$^{3+}$ ion were accomplished by PIXE analysis.s.