Numerical Simulation of the Growth of GaXIn1−XSb by the Travelling Heater Method

A numerical simulation model for the growth of Ga×In1−×Sb by the traveling heater method (THM) is presented. The field equations are solved numerically by an adaptive finite element procedure as the interfaces between the solid and liquid phases change in time. The fully-implicit time integration technique is adopted to solve the transient equations, and the resulting non-linear algebraic equations are solved by the Newton-Raphson method. Numerical results show that the furnace thermal profile and thermo-solutal convection in the liquid solution have significant effects on the growth process. Results are only presented for small growth times due to computational constraints. To simulate the entire THM growth process, a parallel processor must be used.