Solid-State Conversion of Single Crystals: The Principle and the State-of-the-Art

Solid-state conversion of single crystals from polycrystalline materials has the advantages of cost-effectiveness, chemical homogeneity, and versatility over the conventional melt growth and solution growth methods, particularly for systems with high melting points, incongruent melting, high reactivity (volatility), and phase transformations at high temperature. Nevertheless, for commercial production, this technique has only been successful in a few limited systems, in particular ferroelectric systems. This is mostly because of the difficulty in controlling the microstructure, particularly suppressing grain growth in the polycrystal during its conversion. This article describes the principle and the current status of the solid-state conversion of single crystals. We first introduce the recently developed principle of microstructural evolution to explain the basis of the microstructure control in polycrystals for solid-state conversion. We then report recent technical developments in fabricating single crystals by the solid-state single crystal growth (SSCG) method and their physical properties. The SSCG method is expected to be studied and utilized more widely in fabricating single crystals with complex compositions as a strong alternative to the melt growth and solution growth methods.