Flow control during bulk melt crystal growth is desirable for producing ternary alloy semiconductors with tunable lattice parameters and bandgap energy, providing custom materials for specific electro-optical applications. Segregation between constituent elements in the melt, be it through preferential rejection at the growth front or density variations, limits the growth rate and the uniformity in the crystal. External alternating magnetic fields are employed to stir the electrically conducting melt. While mixing is desired, turbulent flow is generally not. Precise control is required to maintain a laminar melt flow while providing sufficient mixing. Stirring via a rotating magnetic field (RMF) and a three-coil traveling magnetic field (TMF) is modeled and compared for a cylindrical melt confined in an ampule. The RMF imposes a body force in the azimuthal direction while the TMF induces primarily radial and axial body forces. The magnetic fields are effectively decoupled from the flow fields due to the small magnetic Reynolds number. Therefore, the magnetic fields are first determined using a finite element solver. The flows are then solved by a spectral element model of the Navier-Stokes equations including an electromagnetic body force term.
Flow control of magnetic fluids exposed to magnetic fields