Crystallography and engineering knowledge for perfect products

The impact of the development of the crystal growth methods on modern technology is often underestimated. We use products manufactured on crystalline surfaces everyday in our electronic devices. New applications for single crystals emerge continuously as older ones are disappearing due to the technological progress.

The growth of single crystal material is a technologically and economically challenging business. The starting materials must be highly purified and contaminations need to be minimized during crystal growth and processing. Continuous measurements of product quality indicators like orientation and homogeneity are a key to economical success.

The production of silicon dominates the market for single crystals. Other semiconductors and metals are produced on much smaller scale. The market share of wide-bandgap semiconductors like gallium nitride and insulators like sapphire is currently increasing. Laser optics are an important application field for crystals like garnets, borates and other transparent oxides. The importance of piezoelectric single crystals like quartz has decreased in the last years, and many applications of these materials do not require single crystals.

Freiberg Instruments offers customized X-ray diffraction solutions for single crystal orientation and quality control.

  • orientation determination find the crystallographic orientation of a single crystal surface with the ultra-fast Omega Scan method, or use the flexible Theta Scan

  • crystal quality measure the Rocking Curve half-width to characterize your material

  • surface mapping raster scan a crystal surface for orientation or Rocking Curve maps

  • engineering: construction and automation together with our customers, we design tailor-made solutions

Applications for Crystal growth and processing