Effects of various magnetic field configurations on temperature distributions in Czochralski silicon melts

Magnetic fields are of growing interest for improvement of the silicon Czochralski crystal growth process. The use of steady magnetic fields provides suppression of turbulent fluctuations due to their damping action on the melt flow. Recent literature data on magnetic fields show that a relatively low field strength allows to control heat and mass transfer in laboratory scale melts. This contribution presents experimental results of temperature measurements in industrial scale silicon Czochralski melts under different magnetic field conditions. Temperature distributions are obtained by using thermocouples to detect temperatures in the melt and at the crucible wall during a crystal growth process. In addition we report on results of numerical simulations carried out for growth parameters and magnetic fields as used in the experiments. All experimental data are compared with the results from numerical simulation and discussed with respect to their implication on improving the quality of the grown crystals. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.