The congruently melting composition of Lithium Niobate(LN) is 48.6mol% Li 2O,rather than stoichiometric 50mol%Li 2O.By means of conventional Czochralski(CZ) method,it is easy to grow the congruent LN crystal with high quality,but difficult to grow the stoichiometric LN crystal with homogeneous composition. In contrast to CZ method,Melting Zone(MZ) method makes use of the segregation of solute,and is likely to grow homogeneous crystal.By MZ method,we have grown near stoichiometric LN crystal (Li%mol=49.5%) from stoichiometric LN raw material. The difference between the raw material and the crystal is due to the volatilization loss of Lithium at the growing temperature.With 50.5mol%Li 2O LN raw material,stoichiometric LN crystal could be grown. Li rich LN solvent zone preplaced in the melting zone makes the crystal much more homogeneous than that without the solvent zone.The preplaced Li rich zone heightens the starting [Li] concentration of the liquid phase,so that the initial [Li] concentration of LN crystal is close to the stable value,and the process of stabilization is shortened.
