Numerical Analysis of the Combined Influence of Accelerated Crucible Rotation and Dynamic Crucible Translation on Liquid Phase Diffusion Growth of SiGe

• Main Authors: Mandeep Sekhon, Brian Lent, Yanbao Ma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2016-09-01
• Series: Crystals
• Subjects: liquid phase diffusion; simulation; germanium-silicon alloys; accelerated crucible rotation technique; dynamic translation; modeling; solution growth; numerical study
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/6/9/116

The effects of accelerated crucible rotation technique (ACRT) and dynamic translation on liquid phase diffusion (LPD) growth of SixGe1−x single crystals have been separately investigated numerically in earlier works and were found to have a very positive impact on the LPD growth process. Building upon these findings, in this paper, we study the consequences of imposing both ACRT and dynamic translation on this growth technique. Time-dependent, axisymmetric numerical simulations using moving grid approach have been carried out using finite volume code Ansys Fluent. Crucible translation effect is simulated using dynamic thermal boundary condition. Results are compared to the case in which this growth system is subjected to ACRT only. It is predicted that by combining ACRT with dynamic pulling, excellent axial compositional uniformity can be achieved and growth rate can be improved substantially without significantly compromising on the benefits of employing ACRT. The results show that it is advantageous to utilize the combination of ACRT and dynamic translation during LPD growth rather than using them independently for producing relatively uniform composition SixGe1−x single crystals in a shorter span of time.