Papers by Author: Pál Bárczy

Abstract: Thermoelectric (TE) semiconductor materials are widely used for miniaturized versatile cooling devices in a wide spectrum of equipments and energy generation in space vehicles. The bismuth telluride pseudobinary alloy family presents the best characteristics for room temperature TE cooling applications. Using appropriately oriented single crystals instead of the well known polycrystalline materials made by powder metallurgy methods, the efficiency of the TE device (Thermoelectric Cooler – TEC or Thermoelectric Generator – TEG) could be almost doubled. For having good quality TE material it is required to produce equally doped single crystals by the controlled crystallization process, namely with the Bridgman-Stockbarber method. Our experiments were made in the Universal Multizone Crystallizator Type UMC, developed by the ADMATIS Ltd., Miskolc, using a quartz tube under high vacuum conditions and automatically controlled thermal field parameters. The crystallographic analysis of the obtained samples was made by Scanning Electron Microscopy – (SEM), X Ray Diffraction – (XRD), and neutron diffraction (TOF spectrometry).

Abstract: Foaming experiments in order to understand the evolution of the foam structure blown in different directions and levels of gravity have been carried out. The key elements of the experiment are the foam generator body (henceforth FG) and the controlled blowing apparatus. The FG was a polymer foam infiltrated with a suspension (distilled water, pure tenside (SDS, 0.05m%) and SiO2 nanoparticles (2m%)) Foams were blown out at 1.5, 2, 4, 6, 10 and at 15g levels in three different directions (0, 90 and 180o, measured to the direction of the gravity vector). The elevated gravity condition was implemented in a hyper-g centrifuge (ZARM Bremen). Results show that foams can be created even at high gravity levels though the foamability and foam structure alters a lot by varying gravity level and foaming direction. At higher g-levels, under fixed gas flow rate and blowing time less foam could be produced. The average cell size varied with the blowing directions but proved constant on any gravity levels. On base of the gravity direction dependent pressure curves the foaming process was interpreted in detail. It was found that the sedimentation ruled capillary clogging is the main process by causing the gravity direction dependent foaming phenomena. The unexpected observation is that the foam stability does not depend on the gravity level.

Abstract: The progress in advanced single crystal growth demands versatile, advanced equipment. Multizone furnaces are able to fulfill unusual technological requirements providing versatile and reliable all-in-one tools for laboratories on the ground or in space. The concept of the Universal Multizone Crystallizator (UMC), its hardware and software components along with several application examples are demonstrated.

Abstract: In this study, crystals of CdTe were grown from melts, which have undergone different thermal history, by the unseeded gradient freeze method using the Universal Multizone Crystallizator (UMC). The effects of melt conditions on the quality of grown crystal were studied by various characterization techniques, including Synchrotron White Beam X-ray Topography (SWBXT), atomic force microscopy (AFM), electrical conductivity and Hall measurements.