Related papers: Classification of step bunching phenomena
We study the step bunching kinetic instability in a growing crystal surface characterized by anisotropic diffusion. The instability is due to the interplay between the elastic interactions and the alternation of step parameters. This…
The dynamics of steps on crystal surfaces is considered. In general, the meandering of the steps obeys a subdiffusive behaviour. The characteristic asymptotic time laws depend on the microscopic mechanism for detachment and attachment of…
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…
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…
The decay of a crystalline cone below the roughening transition is studied. We consider local mass transport through surface diffusion, focusing on the two cases of diffusion limited and attachment-detachment limited step kinetics. In both…
The kinetics of monoatomic steps in diffusion-controlled crystal growth and evaporation processes are investigated analytically using a Green's function approach. Integro-differential equations of motion for the steps are derived; and a…
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…
We introduce a simple two region model where the diffusion constant in a small region around each step on a vicinal surface can differ from that found on the terraces. Steady state results for this model provide a physically suggestive…
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…
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…
We study vicinal crystal surfaces with the terrace-step-kink model on a discrete lattice. Including both a short-ranged attractive interaction and a long-ranged repulsive interaction arising from elastic forces, we discover a series of…
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…
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…
We consider the growth of a vicinal crystal surface in the presence of a step-edge barrier. For any value of the barrier strength, measured by the length l_es, nucleation of islands on terraces is always able to destroy asymptotically…
The distinction between absolute and convective instabilities is well known in the context of hydrodynamics and plasma physics. In this Letter, we examine an epitaxial crystal growth model from this point of view and show that a…
Step meandering instability in a Burton-Cabrera-Frank (BCF)-type model for the growth of an isolated, atomically high step on a crystal surface is analyzed. It is assumed that the growth is sustained by the molecular precursors deposition…
Fluctuations of isolated and pairs of ascending steps of monoatomic height are studied in the framework of SOS models, using mainly Monte Carlo techniques. Below the roughening transistion of the surface, the profiles of long steps show the…
The BCF theory of crystal growth has been successful in describing a wide range of phenomena in surface physics. Typical crystal surfaces are slightly misoriented with respect to a facet plane; thus, the BCF theory views such systems as…
Long-ranged step-step attractions destabilize the vicinal crystal surfaces. Their competition with shorter-ranged step-step repulsions results in self-organized patterns. The exponent in the time-scaling of their characteristic size is…
We study several one dimensional step flow models. Numerical simulations show that the slope of the profile exhibits scaling in all cases. We apply a scaling ansatz to the various step flow models and investigate their long time evolution.…