Patent ID: 7754012
Filing Date: 2010-07-13
Classification: C30B,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A crystal manufacturing method, comprising the steps of: preparing a crystal raw material solution containing Group III elements, nitrogen and at least one of an alkali metal and an alkaline-earth metal in a reactor vessel, applying heat and pressure thereto in an atmosphere of gas containing nitrogen so as to allow the nitrogen and the Group III elements in the crystal raw material solution to react with each other, whereby Group III nitride crystals are grown, wherein the reactor vessel has a gas inlet and a gas outlet, the reactor vessel and a gas supplying device are coupled, a flow velocity of the gas containing nitrogen at least one of the gas inlet and the gas outlet of the reactor vessel is in a range of 1 cm/sec to 500 cm/sec, and in the reactor vessel, the gas containing nitrogen introduced through the gas inlet that is not used for the reaction is exhausted through the gas outlet, and so that aggregation of the at least one of the alkali and the alkaline-earth metal at the gas inlet is suppressed, and at least one selected from the group consisting of (a) a baffle plate with at least one through hole formed therein and (b) a crucible, which contains the crystal raw material, having a lid with at least one pore through which the gas enters the crucible is placed in the reactor vessel, so that evaporation of the at least one of the alkali metal and the alkaline-earth metal from the crystal raw material solution is suppressed.