Growing Crystals FAST!!!

[@Wrathwithin18]

FYI, one Arduino nano would've been just fine for all of those functions. Both the turning and temperature monitoring/actuating are "slow" processes and could've been able to wait a couple microseconds without a hitch ;) Source : I am an Electronics Technician + EE :)

[@htomerif]

Yeah, one atmega328p would do all of these jobs. Just use interrupt vectors. Everyone writes code for mirocontrollers with just a main loop that does everything. If you use interrupts and timers, you don't need a main loop at all. Also, I don't know if any other microcontroller has this feature but the TI MSP430 series has an ADC that runs automatically with a pin mask and DMA, so you just start the ADC and from then on you have the current ADC in a block of memory without any extra code.

[@Wrathwithin18]

@@htomerif That is quite neat indeed about the MSP430! I was thinking about something like that as I was writing the comment too.. but I figured that it probably wouldn't have been much of a problem without it since the pwm's latched on/off state is basically waiting time and the transitions are the critical part (+timer used, obvs). Thanks for the information on the TI mcu though ;) I will definitely look that up

[@CharlesWilliams-zy9nc]

How to paint large metal flake

[@chenlin5375]

@@htomerif A lot of them do. As far as I know, STM32F103, CH32V003 (and almost the entire CH32V series) or CW32L031 all have DMA and ADC that can run in continous mode. Also I think DMA may not be necessary, one can simply configure the ADC to run in continous mode and enable EOC interrupt, then read the ADC value in the interrupt handler and write the value to a variable. That should be able to be pulled off by most Arm-based microcontrollers even without DMA controllers, like PY32F002A.

[@1kreature]

Food grade Monopotassium Phosphate can (ond usually do) contain anti caking agents such as potato or corn starch. Aquarium grade obviously avoids this as nobody wants a milky fishtank...

[@LesLaboratory]

That figures! The food grade I bought was allegedly pure, but not even repeated filtering could shift whatever it was.

[@theodorekorehonen]

Starches are quite a pain to remove from aqueous solutions!

[@EgonSorensen]

@@theodorekorehonen When in doubt, boil it out - I have NO idea if it works, but starches stiffen at certain temps :ø)

[@jafinch78]

@@EgonSorensen The starch materials chemistry and related characteristics seems like a branch of science in itself. Reminds me of the broad range of cellulose materials.

[@Mind_Idiot]

"milky fishtank" sounds like an especially gross sex move

[@grant-is]

The information density of this video is astounding. Best yet. You're a Legend, Les.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks very much!

[@Marbslab]

"We can no longer buy acids in the UK. " Next, lemons will be banned because they contain citric acid. Vinegar will be banned anyway because it contains acetic acid. Apples will be banned because they contain malic acid. Soon, everyone will suffer from scurvy again because food will no longer be allowed to contain ascorbic acid. Chemistry is feared by those who have no idea about it. But enough of the madness: fascinating and nice video!

[@borincod]

all bans are for your own good. you should be thankful to our democratic governments for caring over us

[@Muonium1]

This is such incredible work. You've basically recreated the old video of Cleveland Crystals growing the enormous NIF D*KDP boules that I first saw 20 years ago and which can still be seen on here (albeit at horrendously low resolution). This is the most satisfying use of my donation $ out of any science channel on here. It's as if the amateur science section of SciAm in the 70s were transported half a century into the future. Very much looking forward to the crystal cutting video. EDIT: Incidentally, Alan Holden, the man who wrote that book, also did a documentary with the PSSC in 1958 called crystals and that too can be seen here.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Yeah I have seen that self same video :-) You are very welcome, I loved the Sci-Am stuff and it is sorely missed. The cutting and polishing will be fun, but I have enough test pieces now to give it a go. Sweet! Thanks for the tip, I will look that one up! Edit: I'm watching it now, turns out you can cleave with a razor blade and a stout whack from a screwdriver!

[@Brandon-rc9vp]

Your content just keeps getting better and better, way to go Les!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@dorjedriftwood2731]

@@LesLaboratorytoo bad nobody will mention the lack of acid has nothing to do with the British population and is purely a matter of immigration.

[@GreenCaulerpa]

@@LesLaboratoryI have seen a strategy in growing water soluble crystals in which a larger column of a saturated solution is used. The bottom part of the solution contains an excess of salt and said solution is heated from the bottom. Due to the higher solubility and temperature gradient, the salts will continuously dissolve from the bottom and deposit on the seed crystal. That would, in theory, eliminate the risk of the solution crashing out as it’s barely oversaturated at the top and the rate of growth is almost solely dependent on the temperature gradient across the column

[@thomasjearson3193]

it does, he should make a business out of this.

[@user255]

Great work! You really didn't need two Arduinos for this. - replace runToPosition with non blocking alternatives; example "moveTo" and "run". - remove delays from the motor control loop and do the temperature control loop there instead - finally calculate taken time and delay what was left from the 4000 ms. So that you get the wanted delay. However, that surely made the code simpler.

[@LesLaboratory]

You are right, I had also considered other uC's as well, but Arduinos are almost being given away, cheap enough to go nuts! Separating code is an added bonus, I am a big fan of modularity, but I also like the suggested approach.

[@user255]

@@LesLaboratory My way is to plan / tune everything so perfect that I never get to finish anything. So... just wanted to tell about the options.

[@cxn8]

Incredible. Projects like these are why this is one of the best channels on KZbin.

[@LesLaboratory]

Awesome thanks! :-)

[@douro20]

Crystals of ethylenediamine tartrate were used as as a substitute for quartz in crystal filters for multiplexing/demultiplexing of telephone signals up until the development of synthetic quartz. They worked well but had to be packed in an inert atmosphere to prevent them from degrading due to atmospheric moisture.

[@jafinch78]

Interesting, was thinking about mid IR spectroscopy and similar need to desiccate the environment due to the optical lens materials hygroscopic property. Though seems those might be pressed maybe or I might be thinking when prepping the samples and confusing with the lens making.

[@douro20]

@@jafinch78 No, you're not wrong...they used to use sodium chloride lenses for infrared spectroscopy.

[@paulroberto2286]

Woah! Awesome results! Mid-way though the video, I thought "A timelapse of the growth would be cool", You definitely delivered on that! :)

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! :-)

[@cylosgarage]

Really fantastic stuff Les. I was wondering if youd bring up NIF given the relevance, and I wasn’t surprised to see that a lot of the literature is directly related to that effort. I got to see their homebrew KDP crystal growers during my time at LLNL, basically looks like yours except 3 feet in diameter and 8 feet tall, lol. The crystals are unimaginably large, they almost look fake irl. I look forward to seeing the next cutting and polishing steps. At the lab, they use a single point diamond flycutting machine to do the finishing. That would be a fun one to DIY, but I’m a bit biased :). I’d be happy to try and diamond turn some for you though. I wonder if you could machine a crystal with non-flat faces, such that it provides both SHG but also optical power. That would be sick.

[@great__success]

I'm always mesmerized when I see comments below a video of a very unique youtuber by another very unique youtuber ;)

[@AdamosDad]

Even the failures were nice to look at. Looking forward to seeing the cut and polish video.

[@LesLaboratory]

Yep, though I better include those, expectation should match reality! They are not hard failures to be honest, I bet even the worst can be cut and polished into useful components.

[@AdamosDad]

@@LesLaboratory I'm glad that you see the good in the objects that you made, even though not perfect.

[@ferrumignis]

Absolutely amazing results, your crystals are stunning! FWIW even lowly micros like the AVR series in the Arduino have multiple threads if you use interrupts. There is a fork of AccelStepper (iAccelStepper) that can run under interrupt to allow you to do do your slower stuff in the main loop.

[@YSPACElabs]

Yes, and you could probably use a timer to automatically handle the stepper motor driving.

[@seeigecannon]

Fantastic video. I am actually trying to make large crystals myself by basically using the CZ method for growing silica ingots. I just started this last weekend, so no success yet as I needed to buy some more things for my setup. Suggestion: you might be able to get rid of the visible seed crystal by ramping the temperature back up after the setup is installed in the crystal liquor. Hold it at the elevated temperature until you see the seed starting to shrink. I helped set up some crystallization processes at work. Something I did is instead of running a bunch of discrete points I instead just set things up with a cubic-cooling curve formula. The nice thing about this is instead of running a bunch of numbers for various points I just type in the starting temperature, ending temperature, and how long I want it to take to get there. The other nice thing, though I really don't know how big of a difference it makes, is the temperature set points change very gradually instead of having the knees at the setpoints.

[@gsuberland]

Incredible work making this replicable!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@joecrisp9060]

Wow, I don't know which is more beautiful, the Crystals or your elegant setup. From a layman's point of view, it seems like taylored crystalization could be an area with a lot of breakthroughs in the near future. Perovskites, thermoelectrics, piezoelectrics, even fusion applications are looking at advances via crystalization theory. Amazing video, looking forward to whatever you do next.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Yep, I have interesting things planned for these!

[@MrJimmyjammmy]

Amazing work Les, can’t wait to see what you do with these crystals

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Its gonna be good!

[@simonstergaard]

yeah, this is truly amazin dedication.

[@ScientificGlassblowing]

This is awesome! I have grown Alum crystals for years. Typically, I hang them by a thread in a beaker. Your reactor design is great!

[@LesLaboratory]

I would be real interested to hear how well it works with Alum. Being a hydrated salt, I expect it might be spectacularly fast!

The result is remarkable. Thanks for the detailed steps.

[@gkelly]

Those timelapses are stellar! Really cool build. Those crystals are gorgeous.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! I could not resist!

[@empmachine]

I switched my debug LEDs to RGB a while ago and never looked back. It's pretty handy using colours to define state and you get a smaller form-factor since it's just one LED. But Geeze.. Dude.. This is some AWESOME WORK!! I'm amazingly lazy and I think you've still inspired me to try to make my own! I've grown crystals via evap or electrochem for years and never felt soo inspired to pick it up again (and do it RIGHT!). Thanks for sharing!!

[@KnowArt]

holy moly! this is awesome. would love to see fist size crystals

[@James-ri3fd]

Dude you explain this so well I love it. More people deserve to see your videos.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@benruniko]

Incredible work and great results! You have helped open this door to many who would have no idea where to start

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! I remember the days of the Amateur Scientist and want them back, seems like it's working out!

[@michaelmcmemory6532]

Fantastic results! And looking forward to your use of these!!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! I have cool plans for this stuff!

[@RobertLBarnard]

I have no need for crystals. But I find your research, design, execution, thorough & concise presentation very inspiring... even compelling.

[@Fairly-Gmatic]

So incredibly cool. Well done and thanks for open-sourcing!

[@tfrr8089]

I know you probably have a reason to mount 2 arduinos. But you can do both motor and Temperatur controlling in one arduino. I would recommend to Look into scheduling for Microcontrollers.

[@KCM25NJL]

Undeniably cool if nothing else. The attention to detail and the monumental effort really has paid off, those are some beautiful crystals!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! It has been a frustrating/fun build, but the payoff is epic!

[@rkirke1]

Wow! Amazing build quality on the equipment as always, but amazing build quality of crystals too in this case! I bought some KDP a while back after watching one of your videos on the subject. I was lamenting not having played with it yet, but now I'm glad I hadn't got round to it yet, given the wealth of info in this video! If you scale up, you can probably get a temperature stability improvement by insulating the whole box using thick polystyrene foam or fiberglass insulation. External temperature fluctuations probably account for most of the correction the controller needs to do, so if you slow down the rate of heat transfer in/out of the rack box, it's job should be easier. Also, FWIW, when using those Dallas temperature sensors (at least with the library I was using), I found that time averaging could significantly improve precision and noise (but not absolute accuracy).

[@mitakeet]

Has anyone tried maintaining saturation by having a set of 'source' crystals that are warmer than the 'target' crystals? Rather than having a super saturated solution and slowly cooling.

[@MGoat76]

Wow, Les. You always impress. Great build and results! Can’t wait to see them polished and used!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Oh this will be fun for sure!

[@toxomanrod]

Absolutely incredible work! I never dug nearly as deep as you but was always SO curious about this after watching the only available video on YT about the National Ignition Facility doing this on a massive scale. Truly impressed by your work, thank you so much for sharing!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! You are most welcome!

[@fearfulinvegas]

Just stunning work Les and your capacity and willingness to explain how each process is worked through is quite rare and very impressive. No wonder you have an enthusiastic audience.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! The audiences enthusiasm and capacity for encouragement is really spurring me on ;-)

[@russedmonds227]

Absolutely fantastic work! and great video explaining it. Love the time lapse showing the crystal growth!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@savagesarethebest7251]

This is so cool, didn't really feel like I wanted to watch a 35 minute video right now but I was glued to the screen the whole time.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! And thanks for staying the course. A half hour vid is always a risk!

[@lasersbee]

Very Interesting... Makes some nice optically clear Crystals

[@LesLaboratory]

@@lasersbee thanks! They are perfect, just need to cut and polish them now!

[@robertorgan6037]

Beautifully detailed! Remarkable results!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! :-)

[@KonstantinDeak]

Amazing work! Very intriguing and well executed.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@msxcytb]

Fantastic project and documentation! Thanks!

[@mixolydian2010]

Amazing les. What an achievement. Well done. Thanks so much for the files.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Zenodilodon]

Wow! That is excellent work. I have some KDP here that I want to grow into crystals eventually. This is a little gold mine of information!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! You should totally go for it! and endless supply of non-linear funsies! Hit me up if you want tips!

[@tannerbobanner9453]

00:34 "It is far from perfect, and really quite small" - many of us can relate

[@LesLaboratory]

Like cats, they are not owned, they are the owners!

[@mikevegeto1101]

Fantastic work and video! I'm going to try building this myself - very excited!

[@jensdecker8864]

Really increadible! Thank you so much for sharing that with us!

[@michaelDavis-k5k]

Yes, volatile changes in temperature and pressure can indeed influence crystal growth rates. These fluctuations can affect the solubility of the solute, the rate of diffusion of molecules, and the overall energy landscape of the system, all of which play crucial roles in crystal formation. Here's a breakdown of how these factors can impact crystal growth: Temperature Fluctuations: * Increased Temperature: * Generally, increased temperature can accelerate crystal growth by increasing the solubility of the solute. This allows more solute molecules to be available for incorporation into the crystal lattice. * However, excessive temperature can also lead to rapid nucleation, forming many small crystals instead of a few large ones. * Decreased Temperature: * Lower temperatures can slow down crystal growth as the solubility of the solute decreases. This can lead to smaller, more imperfect crystals. * However, controlled temperature fluctuations can be used to induce supersaturation, which can drive crystal growth. Pressure Fluctuations: * Increased Pressure: * Increased pressure can increase the solubility of some solutes, especially gases. This can lead to faster crystal growth. * Decreased Pressure: * Decreased pressure can decrease the solubility of gases, leading to slower crystal growth or even dissolution of the crystal. Wet and Dryness: The wetness or dryness of the environment can also affect crystal growth, particularly for crystals grown from solution. For example, evaporation can increase the concentration of the solute, leading to supersaturation and faster crystal growth. However, excessive evaporation can lead to rapid nucleation and the formation of many small crystals. In Conclusion: While volatile changes in temperature, pressure, and humidity can influence crystal growth rates, the optimal conditions for crystal growth depend on the specific crystal system and the desired crystal properties. Careful control of these factors is often necessary to achieve the desired results. Would you like to explore specific examples of crystal growth techniques or discuss a particular crystal system?

[@TheTablet314]

Very impressive! I do look forward what cool optics you will do with them!

[@DucktorThallium]

This was phenomenal! I spent a good portion of my PhD trying to engineer custom crystal growth systems, so I can say with certainty that this was a huge effort that really paid off! I can't wait to see what projects you do with these, and a part of me wonders if this kind of system could be modified for other nonlinear crystals like BBO, KTP, or AgGaS2, although those will likely be much more technically challenging.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Yes it has been a fun build for sure! BBO might be possible with this, KTP I think needs to be grown hydrothermally, so I guess a lot of heat and pressure, but I would need to look that one up. AgGaS2 by CZ I think, definitely more technically challenging.

[@tillstensitzki5815]

@@LesLaboratory AgGaS2 got crazy expensive since the war in the ukrain started, so I would be really interested if home growing works.

[@FedericoCPP]

Any clue on how hard it is to grow fluorite (CaF2)?

[@BalticLab]

You're back, finally! Great stuff, as always. 🥳

[@LesLaboratory]

Never left :-) Was a bit ill for a while, this should have been released around thanksgiving but hey ho, its out in time for Christmas :-)

[@jakobriedel3725]

Danke!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks for your support!

[@alllove1754]

You are a legend, Les! ❤❤ This was so awesome and gives a whole new look at growing crystals. I've had interest in PPLN for some time so being able to make this, even if with some fancy tools but at home, has its real advantages, especially financially! Thank you❤❤❤

[@manyirons]

This is high on my list of retirement projects. You've either saved me a ton of time, or cost me as I am now even more likely to have at it.

[@LesLaboratory]

Its a foregone conclusion I have created a time sink for you! With that all said, it is totally worth it!

[@theodorekorehonen]

Holy cow man! I've never had a need to grow optical grade crystals for anything but watching this, the obvious amount of design, research, and persistence really shows that you're a clever fella!

[@theodorekorehonen]

And you've earned a new subscriber because even if this is outside my field of knowledge and general interest, it's really neat to see a dedicated hobbyist reproduce results of professionals with a much tighter budget. I love that shit!

[@spooneythebadger]

Amazing. Absolutely amazing. Well done sir, well done.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@bengineer_the]

Congratulations Sir. Absolutely beautiful.

[@3er24t4g1]

Excellent quality content. Thank you for making this

[@andymouse]

Jeez, I am lost for words. Seriously this is next level youtube content and I can not wait for more. Have a great Christmas and a good rest....cheers!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! It is pretty neat :-) A merry Christmas to you as well! :-)

[@andymouse]

@@LesLaboratory :)

[@chemistryscience4320]

O MY F**ING UNIVERSE !! That crystal is absolutely beautiful !! This video literally made me laugh in joy when i saw the Final Product. Austanding. As an almost-Chemist and also engineering enthusiast. I take my hat of for you. That's AMAZING work, wonderful effort put in practice and very methodical. Worthy of a true science paper. You are AWESOMELES :D !! i mean ... Awesome Les haha (^_^)

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! It's really amazing to see it do its thing, and yeah with stuff like this methodology is key. I think if there are graphs we can safely call it science ;-)

[@lordofelectrons4513]

Truly amazing work. I notice the seed is visible I would not have expected this.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Yeah, the 'ghost' seed is odd. It's caused by dislocations when the surface regenerates.

[@jafinch78]

The case reminded me of a dry cabinet we used in the labs as a dehumidification, sort of desiccant, cabinet. However, I did not know there were the smaller form server cabinets that are a way better price. Excellent video in general and thanks for sharing! Looking forward to more optical and other awesomeness with custom made parts.

[@LesLaboratory]

It made a really neat project case, and really looks the part. If it had been white or blue , it might have looked like a real piece of lab equipment! Thanks!

[@stoppi]

Great video and experiment with a lot of efforts, thanks for that 👍

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@nonsuch]

Spectacular job! It's amazing to me how Crystals grow. Cheers! 🍻

[@newmonengineering]

You definitely could have done this with just one arduino. In fact many older 3d printers run on an arduino mega and run heated, heat nozzle, and 5 stepper motors at the same time. Its a bit of programming trickery but definitely possible. Before you showed your setup, just based on the papers. I was thinking a sous vide setup would be perfect for this. Just a bucket and a beaker with the sous vide pump controlling the temperature of the outside water. And then just a simple rotation motor on top. Very nice crystals you have there. Amazing quality actually.

[@christopherleubner6633]

Was just going to say that. We used to grow them in vats on a turntable to make giant ones for use in the Shiva and Nova laser systems that are used for ICF. The crystals were huge as well, used for both a EO circulator and for harmonic generation. The crystals were giant and clear, by giant 28 inches on a side for ones designed to be cur into the EO plates. Also the special thermometers can be salvaged from accustat thermostats. ❤

[@LesLaboratory]

Nice! I would love to see a crystal that size!

[@jdpantoja442]

This is very inspirational!, Congratulations!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thank you so much!

[@laserdan]

Very nice! It seems that a lot of the "best" part of the crystal (down the bottom with parallel/perpendicular sides) is spoiled by some kind of residue around the seed crystal. Would using a smaller seed crystal improve the clear area? Or perhaps orienting it in a different way, or growing downwards. I'm a bit surprised that the shape of the seed is visible at all actually

[@LesLaboratory]

Yeah, there is a 'ghost' of the seed in there. In the end, I intend to cut and polish these for various projects, so the seed is no problem. Smaller seeds might be more difficult to manage. It is possible to affect the width and height during growing by altering things like rotation speed and temperature drop rate, so it might be possible to grow a tall narrow crystal.

[@johndoggett808]

@@LesLaboratory Did you try starting with a short desolve period of warm solution? I.e. desolve the outer layer, then start growing. I'm surprised you have control over width and hight!

[@thatoneguy99100]

Bravo Les!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@Drjtherrien]

I'm speechless. This is beautiful. I might see about adapting this for KBr.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! That would be very cool!

[@philipboehler7850]

How cool is that 😳😳 amazing work and beautiful results. Your videos are the same quality as those perfect crystals 😎

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks so much! :-D

[@cvdheyden]

Well done!

[@htomerif]

You might want to do a simple recrystallization first to remove any unknown crud from either food grade or aquarium KDP. Also, for chemistry purposes, I've found that deionized water is usually better than distilled water. Ideally it would be both, but its usually one or the other. The stainless steel used in commercial water distilling can leave at least some contamination with metal ions and "deionized" water is usually also carbon filtered, so volatile organics usually get removed as well. Distilled water usually keeps things like acetone, alcohols and acetic acid.

[@LesLaboratory]

I do this anyway. Once a crystal is done, the solution still contains a lot of KDP and it is not cheap, so it gets boiled down and crystallized back out. Thanks for the tips!

[@DaveEtchells]

Wow, that’s an *amazing* result, in the truest sense of the word! - And holy cr*p, that’s a crazy amount of experimentation to arrive at the correct cooling profile, not to mention all the other elements of the setup! Interesting about how the amount of supersaturation can get higher without crashing once the crystal reaches a certain size. (Makes sense, more surface area to grab the ions before they can self-nuclear.) Also interesting about the need to “cook” the mother solution to eliminate micro-crystals before the run. I hadn’t heard of that anywhere else on YT before but it makes perfect sense. I don’t need to make any giant KDP crystals anytime soon, but I’ve often thought about growing large “hobby” crystals of various metal sulfates, borates, etc. I’ll bet the techniques of temp control and even just the rotating crystal holder would have similar results, making optically-clear versions of whatever you’re precipitating. Super interesting, and superbly well presented, thanks!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Yes, it was a fair job with plain wrong assumptions made early on, but that's the learning curve. The papers in the description are full of good info on supersaturation. This this system I'm only at 7%, which is in the fast growth area, but with continuous filtration (very complex to implement) insane levels are possible. I can't see a reason why fast growth can't be done with any other salts like Alum, KCl or copper Sulfate etc, it just so happens that the majority of the literature is on KDP because of the need for large optics for the National Ignition facility..

[@yourfavouriteta]

Amazing work!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! All I have to do now is cut and polish, which I am sure will be equally fun!

[@eugenedoronin5827]

Enjoyable content. Thank you!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@robot797]

you could sell those they look awesome!

[@LesLaboratory]

I might! Maybe there is a tiny market for these!

[@simonward2953]

Les this is Awesum work mate! keep it up ;-)

[@RobertSzasz]

I saw an interesting design years ago where a feed tube was set up add supersaturated solution to the growth chamber by heating a testube filled with feed crystals

[@LesLaboratory]

Yeah, I have seen something similar and considered it. There are some interesting methods out there.

[@andrewmacfarlane2667]

Awesome content as always!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! :-)

[@bambumbambu]

i would love that book as pdf...

[@DiffractionLimited]

Those Crystals are incredible - Gratulations! Now, I really want to build a crystalizer and replicate your method. Maybe shrink down the device even more. The ingredience seem to be quite available too. Great Job, thanks for sharing your work. Cant wait to see how this continues.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! I would definitely encourage it. It would be nice to see it either scaled down or up!

[@jaskiratbedi5198]

Hey Les, I can throughly enjoy your videos and have built a dye laser inspired by your design. I wanted to learn more on the parameters to do with NL phenomena, like wavelength for a given crystal, phase matching, input intensity etc on the output. Would you recommend any resources

[@MickHealey]

If I may borrow your phrase Les, "absolutely fantastic".

[@LesLaboratory]

Of course! :-)

[@inkinky]

I love this. Amazing.

[@simonstrandgaard5503]

beautiful crystals. Wow

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@twilightknight123]

Wow wow wow, those are gorgeous. I use KTP for work and was curious about the results for KDP. So impressive I may have to build my own setup to play with

[@LesLaboratory]

Do it! Its a headache, but when it all comes together it is so worth it!

[@harrywilson1660]

I suspect that it's the fish who are picky, not their owners.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! You will have fun with it!

[@lrdiscovictim]

nice one Les

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@luke.perkin.inventor]

Fantastic results, is it possible for the seed crystal to be flatter? Did you try different shapes?

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Your results are excellent! I'm reminded of the excellent vintage films about crystal-growing from the likes of Bell Labs. Also, there's a fascinating industrial film on Periscope Films about the cutting of natural quartz during WWII for use in military radios.

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! I have seen those, and one of their books is reviewed in the video. Bell Labs has done spectacular work over the years!

[@GTS00000]

Stunning!

[@senorjp21]

This is really cool. For about 15 years I used the pcb layout tools on linux (gschem and pcb) but in recent distributions they are dropped. So I tried Easy EDA and it is a) better and b) so similar I would expect there is a source code lineage between the two. The oddball X windows hotkeys from pcb work in Easy EDA. (Not Sponsored) You can order directly from JLC from inside Easy EDA, access a huge stock of jellybean components, cheap smd assembly... It's lightyears ahead of amateur electronic prototyping from even 10 years ago

[@Qyonek]

Awesome! Thanks!

[@finlaygreenaway193]

this is really amazing!

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@Gersberms]

Those look incredible! Can you explain why there's a visible boundary between the seed and the large crystal?

[@LesLaboratory]

This is caused by dislocations in the crystal lattice as the crystal regenerates. There does not appear to be a way to fix this, but it look kinda cool anyway. I intend to cut and polish these for various applications, so these will be sawn off anyway.

[@joehopfield]

Bell labs might have been a Monopoly, but they were a world treasure for science and engineering.

[@LesLaboratory]

A treasure for sure!

[@matejgigel5494]

Nice video. ❤ I am not interested in lasers but i like crystals. This video bring my mad dream of groving quartz crystals in pressure cooker one step closer.👍

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks! Yep crystals are awesome! That would have to be some robust pressure cooker!

[@johndoggett808]

The Science Direct link seems to be broken - I get "Page not found". I love this project - I want one! Thinking of how I could simplify it further.

[@LesLaboratory]

Link now fixed thanks for pointing it out! Thanks! :-)

[@janneliimatainen6186]

simply brilliant! Best rgrds a materials engineer

[@LesLaboratory]

Thanks!

[@dsvilko]

Outstanding!

[@VincentGroenewold]

Beautiful! I guess the lid can't be 3D printed as the pores might also be nucleation sites?

[@LesLaboratory]

The lid is fine, it's not in contact with the solution. With a 3d print, it would be possible to print a concave lid to encourage condensate to run down the walls, rather than stay on the inside of the lid, as well as make a more sensible shape for cooling. The stage or platform though needs to be very smooth.

[@VincentGroenewold]

@@LesLaboratory Ah right ofcourse, thanks!