Numerical analysis of the sensitivity of crystal growth experiments to spacecraft residual acceleration

An analysis is conducted of the sensitivity of the Bridgman-Stockbarger crystal growth method, using an idealized model for a range of operating and boundary conditions over a variety of accelerations. Attention is given to the dopant nonuniformity at the melt-crystal interface. The largest compositional nonuniformities are found to occur for disturbances whose amplitudes are greater than 10 exp 6 g, and frequencies below 0.1 Hz.