Abstract

An Hg 0.84Zn 0.16Te alloy crystal was back-melted and partially resolidified during the first United States Microgravity Laboratory mission in the Marshall Space Flight Center's Crystal Growth Furnace. The experiment was inadvertently terminated at about 30% of planned completion. Nonetheless, it was successfully demonstrated that a HgZnTe alloy ingot partially grown and quenched on the ground can be back-melted and regrown in space under nearly steady-state growth conditions. An identical “ground-truth” experiment was performed following the mission and a comparison between the properties of the crystals is described. The results indicate the importance of residual microgravity acceleration (≲0.4 μg) even in the submicrogravity range for the slow solidification velocities and large density gradients.

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