PERMANENT MAGNET FLIGHT FURNACE

THE OPPORTUNITY TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS ON BOARD AN ORBITING SPACECRAFT OFFERS UNIQUE CONDITIONS TO PERFORM MEANINGFUL RESEARCH IN THE REDUCED-GRAVITY ENVIRONMENT. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL RESULT IN A MELT GROWTH FLIGHT FURNACE USING A PERMANANT MAGNET TO PROVIDE A COAXIAL MAGNETIC FIELD ALONG THE GROWTH AXIS WHICH WILL SUPPRESS CONVECTION FLOW IN THE MELT AND PERMIT PRODUCTION OF SINGLE CRYSTALS WITH MORE UNIFORM PROPERTIES AND BETTER CRYSTAL QUALITY. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL DEVELOP THE PERMANENT MAGNET CONCEPT BY SELECTING THE MATERIALS AND DEVELOPING THE PRELIMINARY DESIGN. THEN A LABORATORY PROTOTYPE PERMANENT MAGNET FURNACE WILL BE BUILT AND TESTED.