Role of Internal Radiation in Oxide Crystal Growth by Heat Exchanger Method

Internal radiation was investigated using the finite volume method for the heat exchanger method (HEM) growth of oxide crystals. Special attention was devoted to the temperature and thermal stress distributions in the bottom region of the grown crystal at the end of the solidification process. The numerical results show that internal radiation strongly strengthens heat transport through the crystal. However, it causes isotherms to intensively concentrate in the crystal bottom region, leading to a significant increase in the temperature gradient and thermal stress in this region. Then, the effect of absorption coefficient on this phenomenon was numerically investigated. It was found that the radiation heat transfer rate at the bottom surface of the crystal monotonically decreases as the absorption coefficient is increased, while the conduction heat transfer rate first increases and then decreases as the absorption coefficient is increased, under the interaction between internal radiation and heat conduction. The variations of the maximum temperature gradient and thermal stress in the crystal bottom show the same tendency as the conduction heat transfer rate. This study indicates that the role of internal radiation on the heat transfer and thermal stress in oxide crystal by HEM process shows some differences from that by Czochralski and Kyropoulos processes.