Thermal-magnetic effects in the SiC crystal growth by top-seeded solution growth method with induction heating

Induction heating is commonly used in the top-seeded solution growth (TSSG) of SiC crystals to provide heating power and at the same time generates Lorentz force in the solution, namely the thermal effect and the magnetic effect. Therefore, studying the thermal-magnetic effects is critical to minimize the system power consumption and improve the crystal growth simultaneously. In this study, a global numerical model was established to calculate the induction heating, heat transfer, solution flow and carbon transport in the SiC crystal growth by TSSG method. The combined thermal-magnetic effects were systematically studied to find out optimal heating parameters that can simultaneously utilize both effects. The results indicate that excessively high or low frequencies increase the total heating power consumption and reduce the induction heating efficiency. The optimal frequency range is 1–2 kHz in this study, for which the minimum total power consumption is 34.4 kW and the maximum heating efficiency is 82.0%. The Lorentz force in the solution changes significantly with the increase of frequency, and thus influences the crystal growth parameters. It's found that the growth rate is relatively high and uniform at 1–2 kHz. Therefore, the thermal-magnetic effects can be utilized simultaneously to optimize the SiC crystal growth.