Abstract
Procedures have been developed for chemically polishing and etching {0001}, {10¯11}, {10¯12}, {11¯20}, and {1¯100} planes in crystals of ruby and sapphire grown from a PbF2 flux. The shape and the orientation of the etch pits were found to be characteristic for each plane and the density of the pits was 102 to 104/cm2. Similar pits were produced in flame-fusion material, but the density was 106 to 108/cm2. Ruby and sapphire crystals grown by the same process behaved similarly. There is evidence that etch pits reveal dislocations which emerge normally to the basal or to the prismatic planes, since similar patterns of pits were produced after the removal of successive layers of material parallel to these planes, and a correlation was found between the pit patterns on opposite {0001} faces. Inconclusive evidence on this point was obtained for the rhombohedral planes.
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Champion, J.A., Clemence, M.A. Etch pits in flux-grown corundum. J Mater Sci 2, 153–159 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00549574
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00549574