English

Step Repulsion Mediates Wandering on a Si(001) Vicinal Face

Materials Science 2013-05-29 v1

Abstract

With a Si(001) vicinal surface in mind, we study step wandering instability on a vicinal surface with an anisotropic surface diffusion whose orientation dependence alternates on each consecutive terrace. In a conserved system step wandering takes place with step-up adatom drift. Repulsive interaction between steps is found indispensable for the instability. Monte Carlo simulation with a strong repulsive step interaction confirms the result of linear stability analysis, and further shows that in-phase step wandering produces straight grooves. Grooves widen as their amplitudes increase in proportion to the square root of time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0210335,
  title  = {Step Repulsion Mediates Wandering on a Si(001) Vicinal Face},
  author = {M. Sato and M. Uwaha and Y. Saito and Y. Hirose},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0210335},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

4 pages, 5 figures, REVTEX4