Convection and segregation during growth of Ge and InSb crystals by the submerged heater method

Feasibility study of cadmium zinc telluride growth using a submerged heater in a vertical bridgman system

“…Experimental validation of SHM was reported by Ostrogorsky et al 12 in a system used to grow Tedoped InSb, Ga-doped Ge, and Sb-doped Ge crystals. Axial segregation data indicated that Te-doped InSb (partition coefficient K ϭ 0.5) exhibited a short transient, followed by diffusion-limited segregation.…”

“…Experiments of Ostrogorsky et al 12 show that significant radial-compositional nonuniformity occurs in SHM systems, even under conditions of uniform axial segregation. These authors explained this result in terms of the "intermediate mixing" notion developed by Brown and co-workers.…”

“…Thus, the SHM provides a degree of control over the chemical composition of the grown crystal that is impossible to achieve using conventional Bridgman methods. 12 With these advantages, the SHM holds promise for making possible routine industrial production of large, high-quality CZT crystals.…”

“…First, it provides increased control over the thermal environment, allowing manipulation of the melt/crystal interface shape to achieve a slightly convex interface, 10,14 which reduces thermal stresses and suppresses propagation of crystalline defects. Second, the heater divides the melt into two zones that communicate through a narrow annular channel, which allows use of the zone leveling technique 21,22,12 in which the two zones are loaded with different chemical compositions of starting materials. During growth, the zone that contains the crystal/melt interface is continuously fed with fresh material from the other zone, making it possible to maintain the desired composition at the crystal/melt interface throughout the growth process.…”

“…Adding a submerged heater to the vertical Bridgman configuration in the manner of the submerged heater method (SHM) [10][11][12][13][14][15] and axial-heat-flux-closeto-the-phase-interface (AHP) [16][17][18][19][20] systems are proposed to overcome these problems. A typical system is illustrated in Fig.…”