TSSG-pulling of Sillenite $Bi_{12}TiO_{20}$ for EOS Application

The reproducibility of successive growth of Bi12TiO20(BTO) single crystals using a top-seeded solution growth (TSSG) pulling method was evaluated by measuring the lattice constants and their standard deviations. A substantial phase diagram in the region close to the stoichiometric BTO was established experimentally for this purpose, and the existence of a retrograde solid solution close to a BTO was clarified. It was emphasize that a starting solution, with a 10.0~10.1 mol% TiO2 concentration, results in large single crystals with a highly homogeneous lattice constant of within $\pm$1x10-4$\AA$, when the solidified fraction of the grown crystal is less than about 45%. A wavelength dispersion of refractive index was measured for the first time, an it was verified that the refractive index of BTO is larger than that of BSO(Bi12TiO20), allowing the voltage sensitivity of EOS higher than the case with BSO as a probe head.