Abstract: A piece of crystal pulling furnace hardware, especially one selected from among crucible holder tops, crucible holder bottoms, heaters, heat shields, and pedestals, is provided as a three-dimensional carbon-carbon composite. The enhanced physical properties of such a material provide advantages in the diameter of the crystal being pulled, the use of larger charges of crystallizable material in the furnace, and an increased life for the hardware.

Abstract: Organosilicon polymers, including crosslinked polymers and crosslinkable prepolymers, of cyclic polysiloxanes, organic dyes, and, optionally, polyenes. The dyes include those with delocalized Pi electron systems linking electron donor groups and electron acceptor groups, and with at least two carbon-carbon double bond-containing pendant groups attached to at least two different sites from among the indicated delocalized Pi electron systems, donor groups, and acceptor groups. Also disclosed are optical substrates coated with the organosilicon crosslinked polymers exhibiting second order non-linear optical susceptibility.