Copyright © 2009 Jürgen Geiser and Stephan Irle. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The numerous technical applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices, such as lasers, diodes, and sensors, demand high-quality silicon carbide (SiC) bulk single crystal for industrial applications. We consider an SiC crystal growth process by physical vapor transport (PVT), called modified Lely method. We deal with a model for the micro- and macroscales of the sublimation processes within the growth apparatus. The macroscopic model is based on the heat equation with heat sources due to induction heating and nonlocal interface conditions, representing the heat transfer by radiation. The microscopic model is based on the quantum interatomic potential and is computed with molecular dynamics. We study the temperature evolution in the apparatus and reflect the growth behavior of the microscopic model. We present results of some numerical simulations of the micro- and macromodels of our growth apparatus.