An optical diagnostic system consisting of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer with the phase shift device and an image processor has been developed for the study of the kinetics of the crystal growing process. The dissolution and crystallization process of NaClO 3 crystal has been investigated. The concentration distributions around a growing and dissolving crystal have been obtained by using phase-shift of four-steps theory for the interpretation of the interferograms. The convection (a plume flow) has been visualized and analyzed in the process of the crystal growth. The experiment demonstrates that the buoyancy convection dominates the growth rate of the crystal growing face on the ground-based experiment. # 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.

Abstract-Oscillatory features of floating half zone convection were experimentally studied by using the drop shaft facility of Japan MicrogravityCenter which supported microgravity period of 10 s. Coordinated measurements including free surface deformation and oscillation, temperature and flow pattern in both lg and micro-g environment were obtained. The oscillatory frequency and amplitude in micro-g condition were lower and larger than the ones in l-g condition, respectively. The results gave, at first time, the oscillatory features such as free surface wave in micro-g, coordinated measurements of more than two physical quantities in the micro-g, and transition of thermocapillary oscillatory convection from l-g to micro-g. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

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AESTRACTCoordinated measurement of temperature. velocity and free surface oscillation were obtained by using the drop shaft facility for microgravity experiments of half ,floating zone convection. The ground-based studies gave transition from steady to uscillaLory convection for multi-quantities measurement.