Growth of ZnO Single Crystals

Abstract

Single crystals of ZnO have been grown by subliming both ZnS and ZnSe and reacting them with oxygen in an argon gas flow. Using ZnS as the starting material, both platelet‐ and prism‐type ZnO crystals were grown. Prisms having a cross‐sectional area in the range of 1–5 mm² and a length of the order of 10–20 mm were obtained. The platelets had an area as large as 40 mm² and were the order of a few microns in thickness. The c axis was always contained in the plane of the plate. The prisms reflected the hexagonal geometry and were bounded, in general, by the (101̄0) and (112̄0) planes of the wurtzite lattice. When ZnSe was used as the starting material, hollow‐type prisms and plates were the general forms taken by the resulting ZnO crystals. In these plates the c axis was normal to the plane of the plate.