Effect of the maximum furnace temperature on the THM growth process of GaInSb crystals with the mushy zone

Abstract The temperature control is crucial for the crystal growth, and has varying degrees of impact on different crystal growth methods. To study the effect of the maximum furnace temperature TMAX on GaInSb crystal growth, we simulated the GaInSb crystal growth processes with the traveling heater method (THM), in which the mushy zone was carefully considered. The results indicate that the TMAX significantly affects the growth interface curvature δR, the axial temperature gradient within the crystal, the melt flow velocity, and the melting zone height HM for THM growth. The HM and the axial temperature gradients at the front of the growth interface gradually increase as the TMAX increases, while the δR decreases. As the TMAX increases from 1031 K to 1034 K, the HM increases by 45.68% from 41.16 mm to 59.96 mm; the δR decreases by 269.14% from -1.62% to -5.98%, that is, the interface concavity significantly increases. the axial temperature gradient at the growth interface front increases by 29.55% from 4.23 K/cm to 5.48 K/cm; the maximum velocity in the melting zone increases by 82.21% from 2.81 × 10-3 m/s to 5.12 × 10-3 m/s when the TMAX increases from 1031 K to 1034 K. Therefore, the smaller the TMAX, the smaller the interface concavity during the crystal growth, and the smaller the temperature gradient at the growth interface, which would be more conducive to the growth of high-quality crystals.