Lateral pulling growth of crystal ribbons and apparatus therefor

Apparatus for growing a thin single crystal ribbon at high speed by continuously substantially laterally pulling a crystal ribbon of a substance from a melt surface of said substance, a crystal growing interface being formed between said pulled crystal ribbon and the surface of the melt in contact therewith, comprising:

• means for containing said substance;
• means for heating and melting said substance and producing said melt surface on the upper surface of said substance;
• gas cooling means provided with at least one nozzle for blowing a gaseous cooling medium over at least a portion of the upper surface of the melt and over the upper surface of at least a portion of the crystal ribbon above said interface, and defining a crystal growing domain on the surface of the melt in contact with said interface, said cooling means controlling the temperature of the melt surrounding said crystal growing domain to above the melting point thereof so that crystal growth occurs on the surface of said crystal ribbon at said interface, said cooling means being provided above said crystal growing domain and in the vicinity thereof;
• said cooling means being movable in a horizontal direction back and forth substantially in the pulling direction of said crystal ribbon to change the geometry in the horizontal direction of said crystal growing domain during pulling of said crystal ribbon, said cooling means being movable in a direction opposite to the crystal ribbon pulling direction to change a short crystal growing interface to a longer crystal growing interface during pulling of said crystal ribbon.