We are applying large-scale numerical simulation and high-performance computing to understand continuum transport, phase change, and reaction in the processing of advanced materials. These exciting tools provide a means of obtaining the fundamental physical insight necessary to enable advances in modern materials processing operations, and the sphere of accessible problems continues to enlarge with the rapid evolution of computers and numerical methods. Research areas include analyses of bulk crystal growth processes, morphological instabilities, microstructure evolution, and defect formation. To support these studies, we develop and apply efficient numerical methods using open-source software.
Our research in crystal growth is directed toward understanding the complex, inherently nonlinear phenomena that control the processes used to create these materials. This understanding is motivated by needs of current and future electronic and optical systems, which require single-crystal substrates with precisely controlled properties. We are particularly interested in describing heat transfer in high-temperature melt growth systems, three-dimensional time-dependent flows in crystal growth systems, mass transfer in melt and solution growth, faceting phenomena, and morphological stability of crystal interfaces. Recent work has concentrated on the melt growth of II-VI semiconductor crystals, step dynamics and instabilities during solution growth, particle and bubble engulfment during growth of silicon and sapphire, and high-pressure growth processes for single-crystal diamond and group III nitrides
In conjunction with research in the areas described above, we seek to advance state-of-the-art numerical methods and analysis. These efforts primarily involve finite element methods for solutions to continuum equations for incompressible fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, radiation heat transfer, and free and moving boundary problems.