Influence of crystal–melt interface shape on selfseeding and single crystalline quality.pdfVIP

Bull. Mater. Sci., Vol. 24, No. 5, October 2001, pp. 475–482. © Indian Academy of Sciences. Influence of crystal–melt interface shape on self-seeding and single crystalline quality † † ‡ D B GADKARI*, P SHASHIDHARAN , K B LAL and B M ARORA *Department of Physics, Mithibai College, Mumbai 400 056, India †Department of Physics, University of Mumbai, Mumbai 400 098, India ‡CMPS MS, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai 400 005, India MS received 14 December 2000; revised 22 June 2001 Abstract. The growth of Sb-based crystals (InSb, GaSb etc) was undertaken using resistive heater furnace by vertical directional solidification (VDS) technique. Crystal–melt interface shape during the growth was shown to convert from concave to convex along the crystal axis of the ingots. Many antimonide (Sb) crystals of 8 mm to 18 mm diameter were grown by optimized growth parameters. The forced convection and absence of conducting support to ampoule showed improvement in crystal quality of as grown ingots. Crystals showed preferred orientation and self-seeding. Results on interface shape and crystallinity of ingots were found to be in good agreement with the experiments. Keywords. Self-seeding; orientation; interface shape; antimonide crystals; VDS technique. 1. Introduction Further, temperature gradient is not employed on the crucible or ampoule