RUBY AND SAPPHIRE SINGLE CRYSTALS

A new method for synthesis of ruby and sapphire single crystals from fluxed melts of alkaline or alkaline-earth tungstates and molybdates was worked out. The grown crystals had an unusual  bipyramidal form concerned with selective adsorption of polytungstate or polymolybdate anions on the bipyramidal {2243} faces.

The main publications:

1. Morphology and some properties of Al₂O₃ crystals growing from tungstate melts. V.K.Yanovskii, V.I.Voronkova, V.A.Koptsik. Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1967, v.177, p.571.

2. Influence of tungstate melt adsorption on the forms and growth mechanism of corundum crystals. Kristallographiya, 1970, v.15, p.362.