Abstract
The study of meniscus effects on the directional growth of single crystals of potassium niobate (KNbO
3) with a [110]
pc oriented seed by the top-seeded-solution-growth technique has been described. The directional growth of KNbO
3 single crystals has been illustrated for different crystallographic orientations of the crystal. Experimental results show that the shape of the solution flux meniscus, which is determined by a number of growth parameters, has a significant effect on growth rates on different 100
pc, 010
pc and 001
pc type surfaces. Findings based on this work enable one to select a dominant growth direction and hence to engineer the geometrical shaping of resultant KNbO
3 single crystals through careful control of growth parameters. Maximum crystal dimensions for the grown KNbO
3 along [100]
pc and [001]
pc achieved in this work are 34.0 and 31.2 mm, respectively.