Experiment and simulation on interface shapes of an yttrium aluminium garnet miniature molten zone formed using the laser-heated pedestal growth method for single-crystal fibers

A two-dimensional simulation was employed to study the melt/air and melt/solid interface shapes of the miniature molten zone formed in a laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) system. Using a non-orthogonal body-fitting grid system with the control-volume finite-difference method, the interface shape can be determined both efficiently and accurately. During stable growth, the dependence of the molten-zone length and shape on the heating CO₂ laser is examined in detail under both the maximum and the minimum allowed powers with various growth speeds. The effect of gravity on the miniature molten zone is also simulated and the possibility of horizontally oriented LHPG is revealed. Such a horizontal system is good for the growth of long crystal fibers.