Growth of GaSb single crystal in space

The crystal growth under microgravity condition in space has attracted a lot of attention, for the quality of crystals can be improved under microgravity because it creates an environment where nature convection is suppressed and mass transportation is controlled by diffusion. This is a joint work between Institute of Physics, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Department of Electronics Engineering, the University of Tokyo. A rod of GaSb single crystal doped with Te, whose diameter is 6 mm and length is 30 mm, was grown in space during the China returnable satellite mission No. 14 in 1992. The research results show that there was no striations in the space-grown crystal part, and furthermore the dislocation density was close to zero in the part where melt was not in contact with quartz wall during the crystal growing in the space, but it increased rapidly after the melt was in contact with the wall. This paper summarizes the growth and research results of the GaSb crystal in detail, and analyzes the influences of microgravity on crystal growth and its potential developments in the future.