Abstract
Rare earth scandate crystals ReScO~3~ (Re=La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb and Dy) can be grown from the melt at temperatures of about 2100 Β°C. The needs of thermal insulation of the whole system are very high in order to reach the melting point and to control the thermal gradients which are required by the Czochralski (Cz) method. The consequence is that inβvivo system observations are practically almost impossible or very hard to perform. Therefore numerical investigations using a mathematical model of the real system can be very helpful. However, numerical models need some physical properties of the considered real system (e.g. density, viscosity, thermal expansion coefficients, thermal conductivity). Most material properties of high melting oxides are not referenced in the literature or they are incomplete and inaccurate. Because the accuracy of qualitative and quantitative results of numerical simulations depend on the used physical properties, we performed corresponding measurements in an adapted Cz configuration at a temperature around the melting point of DyScO~3~ (2060 Β°C). The results are presented and discussed in this work. (Β© 2009 WILEYβVCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)