Static magnetic fields in semiconductor floating-zone growth

Heat and mass transfer in semiconductor float-zone processing are strongly influenced by convective flows in the zone, originating from sources such as buoyancy convection, thermocapillary (Marangoni) convection, differential rotation, or radio frequency heating. Because semiconductor melts are conducting, flows can be damped by the use of static magnetic fields to influence the interface shape and the segregation of dopants and impurities. An important objective is often the suppression of time-dependent flows and the ensuing dopant striations. In RF-heated Si-FZ-crystals, fields up to 0.5Tesla show some flattening of the interface curvature and a reduction of striation amplitudes. In radiation-heated (small-scale) Si-FZ crystals, fields of 0.2–0.5Tesla already suppress the majority of the dopant striations. The uniformity of the radial segregation is often compromised by using a magnetic field, due to the directional nature of the damping. Transverse fields lead to an asymmetric interface shape and thus require crystal rotation (resulting in rotational dopant striations) to achieve a radially symmetric interface, whereas axial fields introduce a coring effect. A complete suppression of dopant striations and a reduction of the coring to insignificant values, combined with a shift of the axial segregation profile towards a more diffusionlimited case, are possible with axial static fields in excess of 1Tesla. Strong static magnetic fields, however, can also lead to the appearance of thermoelectromagnetic convection, caused by the interaction of thermoelectric currents with the magnetic field.