An evaluation of the optical quality of solution grown hexamine crystals

Hexamine crystals have been grown from the solution by spontaneous nucleation in order to obtain reference standards for the correlation of the growth procedure and the optical quality of the samples. Optical tests have been performed to check the structural perfection of the samples. The self-seeded solution growth process gives crystals affected by strain, which spoils their optical quality and precludes wavefront based characterizations. Optical damage tests evidence the presence of absorbing impurities.