Growing of large sapphire windows

In 2004-2005 in the laboratory of crystal growth EZAN developed experimental equipment and technology of single crystal sapphire in the form of large-sized single-crystal sapphire window width of 300 mm. The Stepanov method from the melt were grown by a few crystals in the form of window width 250-300, 400 mm long and 8 mm thick. Products of this kind are needed for military and aerospace applications - transparent armor, a wide-aperture optical-infrared. The machine  NIKA-profile allows mass producing large sapphire window up to 300 mm width. Currently, the equipment is used for manufacturing sapphire windows  with width of 160-180 mm, the long rectangular side exceeding 300 mm and 12 mm thick in a fully automatic mode. The grown ribbons do not contain in the rectangular region bubbles detected by the methods of optical control.

Опытные образцы сапфировых окон шириной 250 мм

           
       NIKA-PROFILE and typical sapphire ribbons grown in the automatic mode