Diffusion-Controlled Dopant Transport During Magnetically-Stabilized Liquid-Encapsulated Czochralski Growth of Compound Semiconductor Crystals

Abstract

During the magnetically-stabilized liquid-encapsulated Czochralski (MLEC) process, a single compound semiconductor crystal is grown by the solidification of an initially molten semiconductor (melt) contained in a crucible. The melt is doped with an element in order to vary the electrical and/or optical properties of the crystal. During growth, the so-called melt-depletion flow caused by the opposing relative velocities of the encapsulant-melt interface and the crystal-melt interface can be controlled with an externally applied magnetic field. The convective dopant transport during growth driven by this melt motion produces nonuniformities of the dopant concentration in both the melt and the crystal. This paper presents a model for the unsteady transport of a dopant during the MLEC process with an axial magnetic field. Dopant distributions in the crystal and in the melt at several different stages during growth are presented.