Disclosed is a method for melting and solidification of a scintillating material in micromechanical structures, including controlling the melting and solidification of the scintillating material by individually controlled heat sources, a top heater and a bottom heater, placed above and below a process chamber, housing a sample with the micromechanical structures and the scintillating material. The heaters are controlled to set a vertical temperature gradient over the sample to control the melting and solidification of the scintillating material. During melting, the top heater is ramped up and stabilized at a temperature where no melting occurs and the bottom heater is ramped up and stabilized at a temperature where melting occurs during a period of time while the scintillating material melts and flows into the micromechanical structures. During solidification, the temperature of the bottom heater decreases to enable solidification to take place starting from the bottom of the micromechanical structures.

A crystalline silicon ingot and a method of fabricating the same are disclosed. The crystalline silicon ingot of the invention includes multiple silicon crystal grains growing in a vertical direction of the crystalline silicon ingot. The crystalline silicon ingot has a bottom with a silicon crystal grain having a first average crystal grain size of less than about 12 mm. The crystalline silicon ingot has an upper portion, which is about 250 mm away from said bottom, with a silicon crystal grain having a second average crystal grain size of greater than about 14 mm.

A method for producing a silicon ingot, provided with symmetrical grain boundaries, including at least steps made of: (i) providing crucible with longitudinal axis, bottom of which includes a paving formed from monocrystalline cuboid silicon seeds with a square or rectangular base and arranged contiguously, the paving, when viewed according to axis, being in shape of a grid of orthogonal directions (x) and (y) parallel to edges of seeds; and (ii) proceeding with controlled solidification of silicon by growth on seeds in a growth direction collinear to axis; wherein paving in step (i) is produced from identical silicon seeds, with two seeds contiguous in direction (x) being images of each other by turning axis (y) and two seeds contiguous in direction (y) being images of each other by turning axis (x), and misorientation 2 between crystalline arrays of two contiguous seeds being greater than 4.

The present invention relates to the purification of silicon. The present invention provides a method for purification of silicon. The method includes recrystallizing starting material-silicon from a molten solvent comprising aluminum to provide final recrystallized-silicon crystals. The method also includes washing the final recrystallized-silicon crystals with an aqueous acid solution to provide a final acid-washed-silicon. The method also includes directionally solidifying the final acid-washed-silicon to provide final directionally solidified-silicon crystals.

A method for manufacturing a silicon cylinder by growth on seeds in a directed solidification furnace, including at least the following steps: (i) providing a crucible having a longitudinal axis (Z), in which the bottom is covered with a layer of seeds of monocrystalline silicon in a right prism shape; and (ii) proceeding with directed solidification of silicon by growth on seeds, in a direction of growth that is co-linear with the axis (Z) and with a concave solidification front, spatially or temporally; characterized in that the layer in step (i) of: one or more central seeds G.sub.c; and one or more peripheral seeds G.sub.p contiguous to the seed(s) G.sub.c, the peripheral seeds G.sub.p having a specific size.

A crucible structure is adapted for manufacturing a silicon crystal structure. The crucible structure includes a crucible body and a release coating layer. A material of the crucible body includes silicon dioxide. The release coating layer directly covers the crucible body, and a material of the release coating layer includes barium silicate. The barium silicate is a continuous film to contact the silicon crystal structure, and a thickness of the release coating layer is between 35 m and 350 m.

A hybrid crucible comprising a frame and a bottom plate. The crucible is characterized by the selection of material of these two components, which have been optimized in terms of thermal conductivity. The crucible is adapted to produce crystalline materials. Moreover, a method for producing crystalline material is disclosed.

In various embodiments, a precursor powder is pressed into an intermediate volume and chemically reduced, via sintering, to form a metallic shaped article.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a furnace system for growing crystals. The furnace system comprises a crucible for growing a crystal and a furnace comprising a housing having an inner volume. The housing comprises a through hole connecting the inner volume with an environment of the housing. An insulation plug is movably insertable into the through hole for controlling a heat extraction out of the crucible by radiation, wherein the insulation plug is free of a force transmitting contact with the crucible.

A system comprises a silicon seed arranged on a pedestal, where the silicon seed is ring shaped and is configured to receive melted silicon at a feed rate to form an ingot, and where the pedestal is configured to rotate at a rotational speed. A controller is configured to, while the silicon seed receives the melted silicon and while the ingot is forming: receive feedback regarding a diameter of the ingot and regarding an angle of a meniscus of the ingot, and control the rotational speed of the pedestal and the feed rate of the melted silicon based on the feedback to control the diameter of the ingot and the angle of the meniscus of the ingot