The main purpose of this paper is to find those values of the die radius r(0), pulling rate v and melt temperature T-0 at the meniscus basis which assures the growth of an Nd:YAG cylindrical bar with a prescribed diameter 2r(f) for which the nonuniformities of the surface of the bar, due to small uncontrollable oscillations of v and T-0 are minimum possible. Numerical results are given for an Nd:YAG cylindrical bar of 5 mm diameter, grown in a furnace in which the vertical temperature gradient is k = 33 K/mm. For a value of v in the range v is an element of [0.0001, 0.53] mm/s and a value of T-0 in the range T-0 is an element of [2244,3000], four types of uncontrollable oscillations O-i, i = 1,4, of these parameters are considered: O-1 = (Deltav = +/-0.001 mm/s and DeltaT = +/-1 K), O-2 = (Deltav = +/-0.01 mm/s and DeltaT = +/-10 K), O-3= (Deltav = +/-0.02 mm/s and DeltaT = +/-20 K), O-4 = (Deltav = +/-0.001 mm/s and DeltaT = +/-30 K). For a set of six values of r(0) in the range r(0) is an element of [2.6,4.0] mm, the amplitude of the crystal radius variation due to the above four oscillations is computed. It is found that the amplitude of the crystal radius variation due to the considered oscillations is minimum for . r(0) = 2.6mm, v = 0.0119mm/s, T-0 = 2305K for O-1; . r(0) = 2.6mm, v = 0.0243mm/s, T-0 = 2303K for O-2; . r(0) = 2.6mm, v = 0.0466mm/s, T-0 = 2299K for O-3; . r(0) = 2.7mm, v = 0.0011 mm/s, T-0 = 2360K for O-4. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.