Abstract
Previous studies on the measurements of surface tension of molten silicon containing our recent results were critically reviewed as follows: 1) brief discussions based on the Keene's review on the reported literature values of surface tension σ and its temperature coefficient dσ/dT mainly in relation to the effect of impurities, especially oxygen, by the contamination during the measurements of σ and dσ/dT, 2) short introduction and comments on the various methods for the surface tension measurement reported after the publication of Keene's review, 3) thermodynamic feature of the molten silicon-gas system concerning the relation between partial pressure P_<o2> of oxygen and SiO, and also the relation between oxygen concentration in the silicon and P_<o2>, etc., based on our results, 4) treatment of oxygen in the system for the surface tension measurements, for examples, the method and apparatus for controlling P_<o2> of the system and the quantitative influence of oxygen on σ and dσ/dT, which were obtained by our study.
