Numerical simulation of the LEG-growth of GaAs crystals with account of high-pressure gas convection

The influence of the inert gas pressure on the growth of 4 GaAs crystals by the liquid encapsulated Czochralski method (LEC) process is studied for a range of the Ar gas pressure up to 10 bar by using our finite-volume computer code STHAMAS. Up to the pressure of 0.6 bar we are considering laminar convection. For the pressure range from 5 to 10 bar we are using the buoyancy extended standard k-epsilon turbulence model with wall functions to simulate the gas flow. The numerical results show that the Argon gas pressure has a strong influence on the consumption of heater power in qualitative agreement with our experimental results. The convex curvature of the growth interface and the maximum thermal stress (von Mises criterion) are found to increase with increasing gas pressure both in the laminar and turbulent evaluations.