A system for growing an ingot from a melt includes an outer crucible, an inner crucible, and a weir. The outer crucible includes a first sidewall and a first base. The first sidewall and the first base define an outer cavity for containing the melt. The inner crucible is located within the outer cavity, and has a central longitudinal axis. The inner crucible includes a second sidewall and a second base having an opening therein. The opening in the second base is concentric with the central longitudinal axis. The weir is disposed between the outer crucible and the inner crucible for supporting the inner crucible.

An object of this invention is to provide a crucible for growing a sapphire single crystal, which is optimized for providing a sapphire single crystal and is reusable. A crucible for growing a sapphire single crystal of this invention includes: a base material (3) containing molybdenum as a main component and having a crucible shape; and a coating layer (5) with which only an inner periphery of the base material (3) is coated and which is formed of tungsten and inevitable impurities, in which the coating layer (5) has a surface roughness Ra of 5 μm or more and 20 μm or less.

A crucible for growing a single-crystal in which a raw material melt for growing the single-crystal is solidified while being accommodated includes a side wall part configured to surround the raw material melt and a bottom part configured to support the raw material melt while being continuous with the side wall part, in which the side wall part has circumferential length redundancy inside the side wall part in a cross-sectional view. The side wall part has a portion where the circumference length is redundant inside any portion in the cross-sectional view, and when the crucible for growing a single-crystal is cooled in a cooling process after the single-crystal growth, the portion where the circumference length is redundant inside in the cross-sectional view is expanded to an outside of the crucible for growing a single-crystal.

The apparatus for producing a gallium oxide crystal relating to the invention contains a vertical Bridgman furnace containing: a base body; a cylindrical furnace body having heat resistance disposed above the base body; a lid member occluding the furnace body; a heater disposed inside the furnace body; a crucible shaft provided vertically movably through the base body; and a crucible disposed on the crucible shaft, heated with the heater, the crucible is a crucible containing a Pt-based alloy, the furnace body has an inner wall that is formed as a heat-resistant wall containing plural ring shaped heat-resistant members each having a prescribed height accumulated on each other, and the ring shaped heat-resistant members each contain plural divided pieces that are joined to each other to the ring shape.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for growing sapphire single crystals, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for growing sapphire single crystals in which a high quality, long single crystal can be obtained within a short period of time upon the use of a long rectangular crucible and a long seed crystal extending in a c-axial direction. Use of the method and apparatus for growing sapphire single crystals according to the present invention can uniformly maintain the horizontal temperature at the inside of the crucible despite the use of a rectangular crucible, thereby obtaining a high-quality single crystal as well decreasing the possibility of a failure in the growth of the single crystal.

A directional solidification casting assembly includes a directional solidification mold having an interior chamber with a shape of an object to be cast using directional solidification of molten metal in a growth direction of the mold and a feed line conduit. The conduit is fluidly coupled with a container source of the molten metal and is coupled with the mold at a gating. The feed line conduit conveys the molten metal into the mold through the gating for directional solidification of the object to be cast in the mold. At least a downstream portion of the feed line conduit that is between the intermediate location of the feed line conduit and the second open end of the feed line conduit is located below the gating along the growth direction of the mold.

The invention provides a growth method for preparing high-yield crystals, belongs to the technical field of single crystal growth. Auxiliary crucibles are arranged on a crucible according to different crystal types and according to the crystal orientation of crystal growth in the main crucible, the relationship between the crystal growth direction and twin crystal orientation. By controlling the angle between the auxiliary crucibles and the main crucible, the relative position between the auxiliary crucibles each other, the auxiliary crucibles realize correction on the crystal orientation of twins generated in the main crucible crystal growth process. The growth method for preparing the high-yield crystals provided by the invention has the following advantages: the crystal orientation change caused by twins is corrected through auxiliary crucibles additionally arranged on the main crucible, and the overall yield is improved for the growth process of the dislocation crystal with large probability; the crucible position can be customized according to the influence of twins on the crystal growth direction, suitable for various crystal preparation processes, improving the yield obviously, reducing the crystal processing difficulty, and improving the material utilization rate.

A poly-crystalline silicon ingot having a bottom and defining a vertical direction includes a plurality of silicon grains grown in the vertical direction, in which the plurality of the silicon grains have at least three crystal orientations; and a nucleation promotion layer comprising a plurality of chips and chunks of poly-crystalline silicon on the bottom, wherein the poly-crystalline silicon ingot has a defect density at a height ranging from about 150 mm to about 250 mm of the poly-crystalline silicon ingot that is less than 15%.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor for a solar cell and other applications is disclosed. A separating layer may be introduced into a mold having an interior defining a shape of a solar cell or other substantially planer object. A silicon nitride coating may be applied onto one or more interior surfaces of the mold. A planar capillary space is formed along the conductive layer. The silicon is melted under an ultra-low oxygen content cover atmosphere and allowed to flow into the capillary space. The melted silicon is then cooled within the capillary space such that the silicon forms one part of a P-N junction in the body of the semiconductor.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for directional solidification of silicon. The apparatus can use a cooling platform to cool a portion of a bottom of a directional solidification crucible. The apparatus and method of the present invention can be used to make silicon crystals for use in solar cells.