Improvement of duality of hydrothermally grown calcite single crystals

The effects of growth factors (nutrient and mineralizer) on the perfection of calcite single crystals grown under hydrothermal conditions in an organi c salt solution were investigated. The increase of carbon number in alkyl g roup of the ammonium monocarboxylates as a mineralizer solution, showed a g eneral trend of decreasing the growth rate. When Iceland spar was used as t he nutrient instead of natural limestone, the dislocation density remarkabl y decreased. It was shown that Mg2+ and Mn2+ ions in the nutrient caused th e increase in the dislocation density in the grown calcite crystals. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.