Magnetic damping of buoyant convection during semiconductor crystal growth with g-jitters

Nancy Ma, John S. Walker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the Bridgman process, a single crystal is grown by the directional solidification of an initially molten semiconductor (melt) contained in a cylindrical ampoule. A crystal-growth experiment in an Earth-orbiting vehicle is subjected to unsteady residual accelerations (g-jitters), which drive an undesirable oscillatory buoyant convection in the melt. Since many molten semiconductors are excellent electrical conductors, the magnitude of the buoyant convection is dramatically reduced by applying a magnetic field during crystal growth. We treat the buoyant convection driven by periodic g-jitters whose direction is parallel to the axis of the ampoule. There is a nonuniform magnetic field that is axisymmetric around the ampoule axis. We compare the magnitudes and characteristics of the buoyant convections for various nonuniform magnetic fields to those for a uniform axial magnetic field.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)212-215
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer
Volume11
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1997
Externally publishedYes

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