Patent ID: 8101019

Claim:
A method for producing a monocrystalline or polycrystalline semiconductor material using a vertical gradient freeze method, wherein lumpy semiconductor raw material is introduced into a melting crucible and melted therein and directionally solidified, in which method a temperature profile is established from the upper end to the base of the melting crucible, said temperature profile being axially displaced in such a way that the phase boundary separating the liquid phase from the crystallized-out material migrates, starting from the base of the melting crucible, gradually toward the upper end of the melting crucible, in which method the semiconductor raw material is melted from the upper end of the melting crucible, so that molten material trickles downward and semiconductor raw material which has not yet melted gradually slumps in the melting crucible and additional semiconductor raw material is replenished to the melting crucible from above onto a zone of semiconductor raw material which has not yet melted or not completely melted, in order at least partly to compensate for a volumetric shrinkage of the semiconductor raw material.