Ammonothermal Growth of Chalcogenide Single Crystal Materials

Single crystals of binary and ternary compounds of alkaline earth and a chalcogen, with or without a transition element, are grown by charging a reaction vessel with an alkaline earth chalcogenide, with or without a transition element or a halide thereof, an acidic mineralizer, and anhydrous ammonia to where the fill factor in the reaction vessel is 30-95 sealing the reaction vessel to the outside atmosphere heating the contents of the reaction vessel to a temperature of at least 300 deg C until single crystal materials visible to the eye form in the reaction vessel cooling the contents of the reaction vessel and extracting the single crystal materials from the reaction vessel.