Commissariat a L'energie Atomique

Claude Potard

Pierre Dusserre

A process for treatment of a liquid mass is described, wherein a liquid mass of a material is separated from a gas-permeable wall for shaping, positioning or moulding the same by means of a gaseous film formed by a gas permeating through a wall of the container.

Process for the treatment of a liquid mass

Process for the preparation of metallic or semimetallic shaped elements, particularly of silicon, in a molten coating bath. Into a confinement crucible is placed the molten basic semimetallic metallic material and a molten coating bath which is inert with respect to said material and whose melting temperature is below that of the material. Into the material is introduced at least one frame-like part, made from a refractory material whose thickness for wetting is greater with respect to the metallic or semimetallic material than with respect to the molten coating bath. A metallic or semimetallic material shaped element is then produced on the frame by the slow displacement of all or part thereof. This shaped element is solidified in the liquid coating bath and finally the complete frame and the solidified shaped element are removed from the bath.

Process for the production of metallic or semimetallic shaped elements

The invention relates to a process for producing plates of a metallic or semimetallic material. The latter is in the form of a liquid mass entirely separated from the walls of a crucible by a liquid film of a second material. A group of plates is lowered into the crucible, in order that the liquid mass can solidify, while being separated from the plates by the protective liquid film. Application is to the production of photovoltaic silicon plates.

Process for preparing plates of a metallic or semimetallic material from

The growth of a solid obtained by cooling a liquid solution is observed and controlled by measuring the variation in volume of the solid-liquid system at the time of solidification. The method is applicable to the control of oriented crystallization from an initial crystal seed or epitaxial growth on a substrate having a suitable crystal orientation. The rate of crystallization can be controlled by means of a furnace provided with means for producing regulated thermal gradients, temperature-measuring means, a chamber filled with an inert liquid, an open-topped container filled with the liquid to be solidified and immersed in the inert liquid, the container being suspended from one arm of the beam of an electrobalance.

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Saint Egreve, France

Claude Potard