Thermocapillary convection instability in microgravity crystal growth

Energy and linear stability theories are applied to study the stability properties of thermocapillary convection in a half zone model of the float zone crystal growth process. The analyses yield results which provide sufficient conditions for both stability and instability, respectively, and therefore, lower and upper bounds for the Marangoni numbers at which oscillatory thermocapillary convection will appear. The results of the analyses are compared with available experimental and numerical data.