Related papers: Non-conserved dynamics of steps on vicinal surface…
A sublimating vicinal crystal surface can undergo a step bunching instability when the attachment-detachment kinetics is asymmetric, in the sense of a normal Ehrlich-Schwoebel effect. Here we investigate this instability in a model that…
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…
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 review the studies on the scaling of the minimal step-step distance lmin in the bunch with the bunch size N, l_min~N^(-{\gamma}). We build our retrospective around the different values of the exponent {\gamma} obtained from models and…
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…
This work provides a ground for a quantitative interpretation of experiments on step bunching during sublimation of crystals with a pronounced Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier in the regime of weak desorption. A strong step bunching…
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…
Electromigration-induced step bunching in the presence of sublimation or deposition is studied theoretically in the attachment-limited regime. We predict a phase transition as a function of the relative strength of kinetic asymmetry and…
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…
We study the evolution of step bunches on vicinal surfaces using a thermodynamically consistent step-flow model that (i) circumvents the quasistatic approximation that prevails in the literature by accounting for the dynamics of adatom…
The quasistatic approximation is a useful but questionable simplification for analyzing step instabilities during the growth/evaporation of vicinal surfaces. Using this approximation, we characterized in Part I of this work the effect on…
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…
We propose a one-dimensional model based on the Burton-Cabrera-Frank equations to describe the electromigration-induced step bunching instability on vicinal surfaces. The step drift resulting from atomic evaporation and/or deposition is…
We report for the first time the observation of bunching of monoatomic steps on vicinal W(110) surfaces induced by step up or step down currents across the steps. Measurements reveal that the size scaling exponent {\gamma}, connecting the…
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 use kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to understand growth- and etching-induced step bunching of 6H-SiC{0001} vicinal surfaces oriented towards [1-100] and [11-20]. By taking account of the different rates of surface diffusion on three…
Epitaxial growth on a surface vicinal to a high-symmetry crystallographic plane occurs through the propagation of atomic steps, a process called step-flow growth. In some instances, the steps tend to form close groups (or bunches), a…
Using a Monte Carlo method on a lattice model of a vicinal surface with short-range step-step attraction, we show that, at low temperature and near equilibrium, there is an inhibition of the motion of macro-steps. This inhibition leads to a…
Concerted experimental and numerical studies of step bunching on vicinal crystal surfaces resulting from step-down electromigration of partially charged adatoms, confirmed the theoretical prediction of scaling dependence of the minimal…
Step meandering due to a deterministic morphological instability on vicinal surfaces during growth is studied. We investigate nonlinear dynamics of a step model with asymmetric step kinetics, terrace and line diffusion, by means of a…