Crystal growth is a vital and fundamental part of materials science and engineering, since crystals of suitable size and perfection are required for fundamental data acquisition and for practical devices such as integrated circuits.

The word “crystal” comes from the Greek and means “congealed by cold.” The term was originally applied to ice crystals and to crystalline quartz found in such locations as the Alps and thought, at one time, to be some permanently frozen form of water. As a crystallization process, crystal growth extends throughout recorded history—the crystallization of salt from sea water may have preceded pottery-making as the oldest method for controlled phase transformation of materials.

The crystallization of salts such as sodium carbonate was known to the Egyptians, and the process of purification by recrystallization from aqueous solution was described by Greek and Roman writers before the Christian era. The “father” of crystal growth, however, is generally considered to be the English scientist, Robert Boyle, who in 1672 described experiments relating the form of crystals to impurities and changes in growth rate. Boyle believed in the healing powers of crystals, part of the mysticism which has had a strong revival in recent times. We understand that crystals are particularly valued for enhancing the ability of the third eye to perceive auras, but are unable to offer warranted samples.

Recognition as the “founder” of the theory of crystal growth is normally given to the American J. Willard Gibbs, who in 1878 published a seminal work on phase transformations, including a theory of the energy to generate a crystal nucleus and of the equilibrium form of crystals.