The largest application of the Kyropoulos method is to grow large boules of single crystal sapphire used to produce substrates for the manufacture gallium nitride-based LEDs, and as a durable optical material.

(For sapphire crystal growth, the feedstock is high-purity aluminum oxide—only a few parts per million of impurities—which is then heated above 2100 °C in a tungsten or molybdenum crucible.)

The upward pulling of the seed is at a much slower rate than the downward growth of the crystal, and serves primarily to shape the meniscus of the solid-liquid interface via surface tension.

Like the Czochralski method, the crystal grows free of any external mechanical shaping forces, and thus has few lattice defects and low internal stress.

The major advantages include technical simplicity of the process and possibility to grow crystals with large sizes (≥30 cm).

[8] The most significant disadvantage of the method is an unstable speed of growth which happens due to heat exchange changes incurred by a growing boule size and which are difficult to predict.