Numerical Study of the Effect of Magnetic Fields on Melt-Crystal Interface-Deflection in Czochralski Crystal Growth

Abstract

In order to control the impurity distribution and remove defects in a crystal grown in Czochralski growth for high quality crystals of silicon, it is necessary to study and control the melt-crystal interface shape, which plays an important role in control of the crystal quality. The melt-crystal interface interacts with and is determined by the convective thermal flow of the melt in the crucible. Application of magnetic field in the Czochralski system is an effective tool to control the convective thermal flow in the crucible. Therefore, the shape of the melt-crystal interface can be modified accordingly. Numerical study is performed in this paper to understand the effect of magnetic field on the interface deflection in Czochralski system. Comparisons have been carried out by computations for four arrangements of the magnetic field: without magnetic field, a vertical magnetic field and two types of cusp-shaped magnetic field. The velocity, pressure, thermal and electromagnetic fields are solved with adaptation of the mesh to the iteratively modified interface shape. The multi-block technique is applied to discretize the melt field in the crucible and the solid field of silicon crystal. The unknown shape of the melt-crystal interface is achieved by an iterative procedure. The computation results show that the magnetic fields have obvious effects on both the pattern and strength of the convective flow and the interface shape. Applying magnetic field in the Czochralski system, therefore, is an effective tool to control the quality of bulk crystal in Czochralski growth process.