Convective-diffusive transport in vapor growth ampoules

Theoretical and experimental work on heat and mass transport in crystal growth by closed ampoule vapor transport is reviewed. It is shown that double-diffusive phenomena, together with the three-dimensional boundary conditions of real systems lead to a complexity of the transport modes that are beyond the reach of the simplifying models currently used in the materials preparation literature. Consequences of the new insights for earth-bound vapor transport and for optimization of future space experiments are discussed.