Melt motion during liquid-encapsulated Czochralski crystal growth in steady and rotating magnetic fields

Mei Yang, Nancy Ma, David F. Bliss, George G. Bryant

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

During the liquid-encapsulated Czochralski (LEC) process, a single compound semiconductor crystal such as gallium-antimonide is grown by the solidification of an initially molten semiconductor (melt) contained in a crucible. The motion of the electrically-conducting molten semiconductor can be controlled with externally-applied magnetic fields. A steady magnetic field provides an electromagnetic stabilization of the melt motion during the LEC process. With a steady axial magnetic field alone, the melt motion produces a radially-inward flow below the crystal-melt interface. Recently, an extremely promising flow phenomenon has been revealed in which a rotating magnetic field induces a radially-inward flow below the crystal-melt interface that may significantly improve the compositional homogeneity in the crystal. This paper presents a model for the melt motion during the LEC process with steady and rotating magnetic fields.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)768-776
Number of pages9
JournalInternational Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow
Volume28
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2007
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This research was supported by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research under grant FA9550-04-1-0249. The calculations were performed on the Cray X1 provided by the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program under grant AFSNH2487 and on the IBM pSeries 690 provided by the National Computational Science Alliance.

Keywords

  • Electromagnetic stirring
  • Liquid encapsulated Czochralski method
  • Magnetic fields
  • Numerical modelling
  • Semiconductor crystal growth
  • Single crystal growth

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