Modelling of pattern formation during the melting of silicon by a HF EM field

The present work investigates reasons of inhomogeneous silicon melting in floating-zone crystal growth. It is proposed that this phenomenon is caused by the concentration of electric current in the melt induced by different material properties of the silicon melt and the solid. A coupled model of electromagnetic, temperature and phase change fields has been developed and used to describe the transient melting-solidification process. The Octave/Matlab script language is used for the implementation of this model. Calculation results demonstrate that the melt structure development is related to the magnetic skin-depth in solid silicon.