An experimental study for the role of natural convection in the dissolution of GaSb into InSb melt, and the growth of In_{xGa_{1-xSb crystals

The article presents an experimental study for the role of convection occurring during the dissolution of GaSb into InSb melt, and the growth of InxGa1-xSb crystals. Experiments were carried out in a GaSb(seed)/InSb/GaSb(feed) sandwich system under an imposed temperature gradient. In the experiments, the GaSb feed crystal dissolved into the InSb melt to supply the required GaSb component for the growth of InxGa1-xSb crystal. Experiments were carried out for two different reference temperatures and two sample diameters. It was observed that the shape of the GaSb(seed)/InGaSb interface became flatter when the reference temperature was lower and the sample diameter was smaller. The growth length of uniform composition section was larger in the case of higher reference temperature. Experiments show that by varying the reference temperature and the sample diameter, the growth interface and the composition of the grown crystal can be controlled by controlling the natural convection in the melt.