Tech Park, 3340 S Dearborn Street Chicago, IL 60616
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Materials, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, IIT
Laboratory for Crystal Growth
Tech Park, 3440 S Dearborn St, Suite 159, Chicago, IL, 60616
E-mail: AOstrogo@iit.edu
E-mail: aashokan@hawk.iit.edu
Phone: +1 (331)275-9579
Our research is focused on the effects of fluid flow, heat and mass transfer on the growth of single crystals from the melt. The crystal growth processes used in our laboratory include:
The Czochralski (CZ) Processes
The Vertical Bridgman (VB) Processes and Bridgman Processes with Baffle (BB)
The thermally-driven natural convection in the melt is unavoidable. Typically, it is characterized by complex periodic/oscillatory flows which cause uneven growth rate, radial and micro segregation, nucleation of disoriented crystals, etc. [1]. Therefore, thermally-driven flows are widely considered to be detrimental to the growth process.
There are ways however, to prevent or subdue these flows:
Reducing Natural Convection The techniques used diminish convection include growing crystals in space laboratories in the near-earth orbit, using static magnetic fields and baffles (link to NASA sponsored Present Projects and SUBSA and [2], [3])
Imposing Forced convection (FC) is preferred in various heat and mass transfer devices, because it is steady and easy to control. In melt growth, the forced convection is a practical alternative to the more difficult and less reliable options of completely eliminating natural convection in order to achieve steady state growth [3, 5-7]. Using forced convection it becomes easier to:
keep steady the velocity, temperature, concentration fields and growth rate
control the solid-liquid interface shape
establish thin and uniform boundary layers
Using a disk shaped baffle to reduce NC and impose FC (link to) [5,7]
Arthur D. Little (ADL) High pressure Multipurpose furnace (left), Czochralski puller (middle) and a High temperature horizontal Bridgman furnace (back).
Vertical Bridgman Furnace
Principal Investigator: Prof. A.G Ostrogorsky · Illinois Institute of Technology · E-mail: AOstrogo@IIT.edu
Co-Investigators
Alexei V. Churilov · PhD, Senior Scientist, RMD · E-mail: AChurilov@RMDInc.com
Dr. Martin P. Volz, Materials Scientist · NASA Marshall Space Flight Center · E-mail: Martin.Volz@nasa.gov
Dr. Lodewijk van den Berg, Consultant, Payload Specialist · 1985 Space Shuttle Challenger mission · E-mail: Lvandenberg32@gmail.com
Prof. Dr. Arne Cröll · University of Freiburg · E-mail: arne.croell@krist.uni-freiburg.de
Astronaut Peggy Whitson installs SUBSA hardware on the ISS
Ground based experiments were conducted in our laboratory, and in the SUBSA ground unit located at Tecmasters Inc.
The refurbished SUBSA flight unit was launched in the Fall of 2017 (LINK- from CapeCanaveral, see_LINK Peggy Whitson news).
Our samples were launched in 2018.
Four out of six experiments were conducted in March/April 2018 (Social Media Link).
Principal Investigator: Prof. A.G Ostrogorsky · Illinois Institute of Technology · E-mail: AOstrogo@IIT.edu
Co-Investigators
Dr. Martin P. Volz, Materials Scientist · NASA Marshall Space Flight Center · E-mail: Martin.Volz@nasa.gov
Michael SanSoucie, Project Scientist · NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) · E-mail: michael.p.sansoucie@nasa.gov
To be conducted in collaboration with a team of Russian Scientists led by Prof. G.N. Kozhemyakin and Dr. A.E. Voloshin of the A.A. Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
The first milestone is to conduct finite element simulations, to optimize the geometry and procedures to for the ground based experiments, including:
direct measurement in capillaries of diffusion coefficients of dopants in Ge and Si. The goal is to
i optimize the diameter, length and duration of the capillaries;
ii) the benefits of using transverse magnetic fields.
Indirect measurements by
i) growing doped single crystals, and
ii) by measuring and fitting the axial distribution profiles of the dopants in the crystals.
The crystal will be grown using the CZ process, as in the BPS experiments [] and by using the rotating baffle process [].
At present, we are conducting experiments, to optimize the geometry and procedures of the ground-based experiments.
The flight experiments in the LGF furnace at ISS are planned for 2024.
Solidification and Quenching Low Gradient Furnace (LGF)