Comment by fsh
3 days ago
The best silicon single crystals still contain impurities at the 1E-11 level. This project is about doing crystal growing in low gravity (the ultra-high purity is only achieved due to the growth process). The vacuum of space is a lot worse than what can be achieved in the lab, especially in low orbits.
There have been experiments to create higher vacuums in space, which have been used to grow semiconductor crystals:
https://scfh.ru/en/papers/vacuum-in-the-wake/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Shield_Facility
I'm not saying it's practical, but it's pretty cool.
What I'm struggling with is the hard radiation, which causes defects and even impurities even if you start with isotopically pure feedstock
What is the current defect rate preventing from happening? If you can lower it three orders of magnitude, what then becomes possible?