Analysis of interrupted growth strategies for cadmium telluride in an unseeded vertical Bridgman system

A transient, non-dilute finite element model is employed to study a novel, interrupted growth strategy which has been employed for the unseeded, vertical Bridgman growth of cadmium telluride. Computations clearly show the time-dependent translation strategy causes solute diffusion layers in the melt to successively grow and die in time, thus providing a means to mix the cadmium rejected at the growth interface into the bulk. This strategy stabilizes the solid-liquid interface by delaying the onset of constitutional supercooling, thus allowing the use of growth rates for grain selection which are higher than would be possible using continuous translation.