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How is a molten zone held in place during float zoning of silicon?
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zone melting
Figure 1: Schematic representation of (A) normal freezing, (B) zone refining
In float zoning, a vertical silicon rod is held in place by end clamps, and a molten zone is created using induction heating. The liquid zone is held in place by its surface tension, which theoretically limits the stable height of the zone. To stabilize zones of greater height, various ingenious induction-heating procedures have been devised.1