Method of and apparatus for growing crystals

Claim 1

In a method of producing a crystalline body which comprises the steps of: (a) seed pulling or zone melting a bar member from a melt of a crystalline material on a source member at a crystallization interface by moving at least one of said members in a generally axial direction; (b) during the formation of said bar member magnetically suspending at least one of said members so that a generally axial displacement thereof can be effected in a substantially frictionless manner, said one of said members being connected with a magnetizable core; and (c) magnetically stabilizing said core by enclosing same in an array of electromagnets of a radial stabilizer so that an annular gap is provided between said core and said array by detecting the position of said core with respect to said array and controlling electrical energization of said electromagnets in response to the detected position of the core; the improvement which comprises the step of: (d) imparting a transverse displacement to said core and to the axis thereof by controlled energization of said electromagnets to effect relative transverse displacement of said members and thereby moving the axis of the bar member around the melt and effecting two-dimensional intimate mixing of said melt at said interface.