Related papers: Vicinal silicon surfaces: from step density wave t…
The steps at the crystal surfaces could be transparent for the migrating adatoms. In the case of significant transparency the velocity of a given step in a given moment is affected by detachment of atoms from rather distant steps in rather…
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…
We analyze the dynamics of crystal surfaces in the presence of electromigration. From a phase field model with a migration force which depends on the local geometry, we derive a step model with additional contributions in the kinetic…
We report on the control of the faceting of crystal surfaces by means of surface electromigration. When electromigration reinforces the faceting instability, we find perpetual coarsening with a wavelength increasing as $t^{1/2}$. For…
Two kinds of configurations involving steps on surfaces are reviewed. The first one results from an initially planar vicinal surface, i.e. slightly deviating from a high-symmetry (001) or (111) orientation. In some cases, these surfaces…
Well-ordered stepped semiconductor surfaces attract intense attention owing to the regular arrangements of their atomic steps that makes them perfect templates for the growth of one- dimensional systems, e.g. nanowires. Here, we report on…
We study the effect of a constant electrical field applied on vicinal surfaces such as the Si$(111)$ surface. An electrical field parallel to the steps induces a meandering instability with a nonzero phase shift. Using the…
The vicinal Si(111) surface, inclined towards the [-1-12] direction, was investigated by scanning tunnelling microscopy and spot profile analysing low energy electron diffraction. It has been established that the surface, consisting of…
The shape evolution of two-dimensional islands through periphery diffusion biased by an electromigration force is studied numerically using a continuum approach. We show that the introduction of crystal anisotropy in the mobility of edge…
This is a review of recent theoretical work on complex dynamical behavior of steps on crystal surfaces. The first part of the article is devoted to the electromigration-driven motion of islands and voids, and the second part addresses step…
We studied the step dynamics during crystal sublimation and growth in the limit of fast surface diffusion and slow kinetics of atom attachment-detachment at the steps. For this limit we formulate a model free of the quasi-static…
We report on density functional total energy calculations of the step formation and interaction energies for vicinal TaC(001) surfaces. Our calculations show that double and triple-height steps are favored over single-height steps for a…
In the manufacturing process of high-performance particulate materials, viscous sintering plays a crucial role, particularly in fields such as polymer processing and additive manufacturing. The interactions between microscopic particles,…
We study the onset and development of ledge instabilities during growth of vicinal metal surfaces using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. We observe the formation of periodic patterns at [110] close packed step edges on surfaces vicinal to…
We investigate the nonlinear evolution of the Bales-Zangwill instability, responsible for the meandering of atomic steps on a growing vicinal surface. We develop an asymptotic method to derive, in the continuous limit, an evolution equation…
We studied the step dynamics during sublimation and growth in the presence of electromigration force acting on the adatoms. In the limit of fast surface diffusion and slow kinetics of atom attachment-detachment at the steps we formulate a…
We demonstrate that annealing of a vicinal Si(111) surface at about 800 C with a direct current in the direction that ascends the kinks enhances the formation of atomically straight step edges over micrometer lengths, while annealing with a…
As a departure from existing continuum approaches for describing the stability and evolution of surfaces of crystalline materials, this article provides a description of surface evolution based on the physics of the main feature imposed by…
Coarse-grained modeling of dynamics on vicinal surfaces concentrates on the diffusion of adatoms on terraces with boundary conditions at sharp steps, as first studied by Burton, Cabrera and Frank (BCF). Recent electromigration experiments…
In the last two decades, Fresnel diffraction (FD) of a plane wave from phase steps has been systematically studied and applied for precise measurements of light wavelength, and height and refractive index of the step. In this study we…