Bridgman crystal growth and defect formation in GaSb

2 " GaSb single crystals have been grown by the vertical Bridgman method. I t is shown that encapsulation by a molten salt is necessary to avoid spurio us nucleation and sticking of the crystal on the crucible, both the phenome na being deleterious to the crystal quality. Twinning, observed even during growth under encapsulant, has been decreased by an increase of the thermal gradient applied along the crucible. Single crystals present structural an d electronic properties close to the classical values reported for undoped GaSb grown by the Czochralski or LEC techniques. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.