Gravitational Effects on Mixing and Growth Morphology of an In0.5Ga0.5 System

A mixing experiment of multicomponents melts was performed using a uniform temperature furnace in the Second International Microgravity Laboratories (IML-2) mission. Growth morphologies and Ga concentration profiles were analyzed for the samples with the compositional ratio of 0.5 In–0.5 Ga–1.0 Sb grown under microgravity and on earth. The sample with free surface grown under microgravity was nearly spherical in shape, except some parts with projections. Ga was dispersed homogeneously in the bulk because the mixing was enhanced by Marangoni convection due to the concentration gradient. On the other hand, the sample grown on earth was a double cylindrical shape with different diameters, and Ga concentration decreased from top to bottom, showing clearly the effect of gravity. Many needle crystals were formed in both space and earth samples due to rapid cooling. The average size of the needle crystals grown in space was larger than that of the earth sample.     

An Inverse Problem of Determining Coefficients in a One-Dimensional Radiative Transport Equation

We consider an inverse problem of determining unknown coefficients for a one-dimensional analogue of radiative transport equation. We show that some combination of the unknown coefficients can be uniquely determined by giving pulse-like inputs at the boundary and observing the corresponding outputs. Our result can be applied for determination of absorption and scattering properties of an optically turbid medium if the radiative transport equation is appropriate for describing the propagation of light in the medium.