Growing crystals The specific properties of crystals make them key materials for a large number of technological fields such as electronics,communications,energy,medicine and defence.For all of these areas,it is of paramount l-poumet importance to have crystals with the appropriate properties,size and quality.Crystal growth has become a major technological challenge. Crystallisation Take your time to make large crystals Crystallisation is based on a simple principle: When a molten compound is suddenly cooled forming a solid object with atoms that are (quenched)there is no long-range order of the organised in a periodic array.This organisation is positions of atoms (amorphous glass)as there was in spontaneous but time must be allowed for it to the molten state.If cooling is sufficiently "slow",then take place and that time varies according to the the atoms and molecules have time to move and thus crystals you are trying to grow. optimise their interactions and compactness.These two factors lead to an atomic order which is regularly repeated,and which will be propagated to new molecules/atoms joining those already solidified.Each atomic"layer"reproduces the order of the inner layer and acts as a model or"patternfor the following ones The period of time may vary considerably according to each material Ifyou want to grow a few large crystals instead of many small crystals,you'll need more time!