Crystal Growth, Bulk: Theory and Models

The growth of bulk crystalline materials remains one of the most challenging and astonishing technical endeavors of materials processing. For example, electronic-grade silicon grown by the Czochralski method is one of the purest and most perfect materials ever produced by mankind. Current production technology routinely achieves impurity levels of less than parts per billion in single-crystal ingots of up to 300 mm in diameter and over 200 kg in mass, and these crystals are completely free of dislocations. Indeed, it is even possible today to control the distribution of micro-defects, such as voids, in bulk silicon crystals. Advances in the production technology of bulk crystal growth to current levels would have been impossible without the application of theory and modeling to understand and improve these processes. While silicon remains the foremost in economic importance, many other materials are produced in the form of bulk single crystals. Most of these are semiconductors or oxides and used as substrates for the fabrication of electronic, optical, or optoelectronic devices. The most common means for the production of these bulk crystals are melt-growth and solution-growth techniques. For more detailed information, one should consult the excellent overview on bulk crystal growth by Müller and Friedrich in this encyclopedia. Vapor, plasma, or molecular beam techniques, because of their slower growth rates, are rarely employed for the production of bulk crystals, though these methods are extremely important for the growth of thin films needed for device fabrication. Topics of film growth and epitaxy are covered elsewhere in....