The critical marangoni number for the onset of time-dependent convection in silicon

Abstract A novel technique has been developed for evaluation of the critical Marangoni number Ma 2 c for time-dependent convection in silicon. This was achieved by observing the onset of formation of dopant striations in silicon crystals grown by the floating-zone-technique with small free melt surfaces. A value of about 200 was found for Ma 2 c .