The development of equipment and technology of crystal growth is traditionally based on the new ways of producing pure mixtures and on improving the growth equipment. The technology of crystal growth is the complex multi-parametric process. Experts point out ten or more growth parameters should be adjusted for the successful crystal growth setup. It is generally agreed today that control and stabilization of heat and mass transfer processes in liquid have a primary influence on the quality and properties of the grown crystals [1]. Attempts to control heat and mass transfer in liquid take place regularly. Some positive results have been achieved. Usually, heat and mass transfer control is carried out by applying some additional external force to the growth system.

Additional forces are applied to accelerate the crystalgrowth and to growth crystals with some unique properties. Number of additional forces continuously increases mainly due to the symbiosis of various fields techniques actions: submerged inert body [2, 3]; RMF, PMF, TMF [4-8]; electromagnetic field [9, 10]; centrifugal force [11, 12];additional heater [3, 13, 14, 15]; different vibration effects: ACRT (AVT) [16- 21], CVS [22, 23], ultrasound [24- 27], LFV [28, 29] and etc.

One cannot deny that the vibration effects is the most energy efficient of additional external force to the growth system.

Fig. 1. The AVC technique scheme:1 –crucible wall, 2 – vibrating inert baffle, 3 – liquid, 4 - liquid- gas interface, 5 - solid-liquid interface, 6 – gas or liquid with density lower than 3, ∅D1 - inner diameter of the ampoule/crucible, ∅D2 - baffle diameter, L – baffle height, R - curvature radius of the baffle’s edges of the baffle, H1 – distance between the baffle and liquid-gas interface, H2 – distance between the baffle and liquid-solid interfaces.

The AVC technique [30] in general is: axial low-frequency harmonic oscillation of an inert baffle submerged into liquid (melt) at a fixed distance from the solid-liquid and / or liquid-gas interface [31, 36] (fig. 1). AVC is the additional external action force in liquid (melt) during the crystal growth set up. The first thing that needs to be said is very high efficiency of energy transfer coefficient by AVC. Electricity consumption at AVC technique application does not exceed 100 watts per 1.5 liter melt.

AVC technique, like many others methods of influence on liquid during manufacturing operations, finds its application in other areas, such as metallurgy [34, 35]. Low-frequency vibrations after some adaptation demonstrate the possibility to achieve unique properties of steel alloys. Unfortunately, metallurgists do not explain observed phenomena.

It should be also pointed out that there is an adequate thermodynamic efficiency explanation of AVC technique for crystal growth application [31]. It has been experimentally proved that AVC technique efficacy is based on melt structure transformation (change the component composition) in liquid (melt). The AVC technique results in increase of crystal growth rate [36], a decrease of dislocation density [37], an enhancement of crystal perfection [30, 37].

The AVC technique has a very good possibility (to be scaled and applied) for scaling and relevance to many crystal growth configurations (fig. 2).

The arguments we have presented indicate that AVC technique is a very promising method both for crystal growth equipment modernization and research area.

The research was supported by Ministry of Education and Science of Russia by grant N 16.552.11.7046.

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Fig. 2. AVC technique applications.

1 – monocrystal, 2 – melt/solution, 3 – disk, 4 – heater, 5 – crucible or skull, 6 – vibration direction, 7 – crystal growth transport direction, 8 – cooler, 9 – initial mixture.

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