Growth of Yttrium‐Iron Garnet from Molten Barium Borate

It has been found that yttrium‐iron garnet can be grown from solutions of yttrium‐iron garnet and molten BaO·xB 2 O 3 . This solvent possesses none of the undesirable properties of the usual solvents in that it is noncorrosive, nonvolatile, and has a specific gravity less than that of yttrium‐iron garnet. These properties make the solvent useful for the usual slow‐cooling growth methods and for controlled growth on seeds. The replacement of Ba with Na, K, Pb, Ca, and Sr will yield yttrium‐iron garnet as will the replacement of B 2 O 3 with V 2 O 5 . A definite relation exists between the amount of B 2 O 3 in the solvent and the amount of iron in the crystallized phase; namely, the percentage of iron in the crystallized phase is higher with increased B 2 O 3 concentration in the solvent. The use of this type of phase equilibrium information makes possible an orderly method of selecting solvents for crystal growth.