Related papers: Ab initio study of step formation and self-diffusi…
Self-assembled Ge islands were grown on stripe-patterned Si (001) substrates by solid source molecular beam epitaxy. The surface morphology obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy…
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…
We investigate the growth kinetics on vicinal GaAs(001) surfaces by making detailed comparisons between reflection high--energy electron--diffraction specular intensity measured near in--phase diffraction conditions and the surface step…
The role of step edge diffusion (SED) in epitaxial growth is investigated. To this end we revisit and extend a recently introduced simple cubic solid-on-solid model, which exhibits the formation and coarsening of pyramid or mound like…
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 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 slow advance of a crack in sodo-silicate glasses was studied at nanometer scale by in situ and real time atomic force microscopy (AFM) in a well controlled atmosphere. An enhanced diffusion of sodium ions in the stress gradient field at…
The behavior of a surface energy $\mathcal F(E,u)$, where $E$ is a set of finite perimeter and $u\in L^1(\partial^* E, \mathbb R_+)$ is studied. These energies have been recently considered in the context of materials science to derive a…
We present a joint experimental and theoretical determination of structures of Ag adatoms on the Ge(111) surface using low energy electron diffraction, low energy electron microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and density functional…
The diffusivity of Ga and Al adatoms on the (2x4) reconstructed GaAs(001) surface are evaluated using detailed ab initio total energy calculations of the potential energy surface together with transition state theory. A strong diffusion…
Molecular dynamics and parallel-replica dynamics simulations are applied to investigate the atomic structures and diffusion processes at {\text{Al}\{111\}}\parallel{\text{Si}}\{111\} interphase boundaries constructed by simulated vapor…
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…
We consider a simple model for the growth of isolated steps on a vicinal crystal surface. It incorporates diffusion and drift of adatoms on the terrace, and strong step and kink edge barriers. Using a combination of analytic methods and…
We explore the effect of faceting on possible mechanisms for mass transport around electromigration voids in aluminum interconnects. Motivated by linear response estimates which suggest that particle flux would be much higher along steps…
Images of the morphology of GaN (0001) surfaces often show half-unit-cell-height steps separating a sequence of terraces having alternating large and small widths. This can be explained by the $\alpha \beta \alpha \beta$ stacking sequence…
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…
Starting with a many-atom master equation of a kinetic, restricted solid-on-solid (KRSOS) model with external material deposition, we investigate nonlinear aspects of the passage to a mesoscale description for a crystal surface in 1+1…
We present a new approach for predicting stable equilibrium shapes of crystalline islands on flat substrates, as commonly occur through solid-state dewetting of thin films. The new theory is a generalization of the widely used Winterbottom…
Ab initio molecular dynamics simulations are employed to investigate the dominant migration mechanism of the gallium vacancy in gaas as well as to assess its free energy of formation and the rate constant of gallium self-diffusion. our…
Starting from a detailed model for the kinetics of a step edge or island boundary, we derive a Gibbs-Thomson type formula and the associated step stiffness as a function of the step edge orientation angle, $theta$. Basic ingredients of the…