Related papers: A Simple Model for Anisotropic Step Growth
A limited mobility nonequilibrium solid-on-solid dynamical model for kinetic surface growth is introduced as a simple description for the morphological evolution of a growing interface under random vapor deposition and surface diffusion…
The growth of crystal surfaces, under non-equilibrium conditions, involves the displacement of mono-atomic steps by atom diffusion and atom incorporations into steps. The time-evolution of the growing crystal surface is thus governed by a…
The morphology of a growing crystal surface is studied in the case of an unstable two-dimensional step flow. Competition between bunching and meandering of steps leads to a variety of patterns characterized by their respective instability…
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…
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 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…
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…
We study a recently proposed nonlinear evolution equation describing the collective step meander on a vicinal surface subject to the Bales-Zangwill growth instability [O. Pierre-Louis et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. (80), 4221 (1998)]. A careful…
The displacement of a fluid by another less viscous one in a quasi-two dimensional geometry typically leads to complex fingering patterns. In an isotropic system, dense-branching growth arises, which is characterized by repeated…
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…
A crystal surface which is miscut with respect to a high symmetry plane exhibits steps with a characteristic distance. It is argued that the continuum description of growth on such a surface, when desorption can be neglected, is given by…
This paper provides an elementary introduction to the basic concepts used in describing epitaxial crystal growth in terms of the thermodynamics and kinetics of atomic steps. Selected applications to morphological instabilities of stepped…
By taking account of the alternation of structural parameters, we study bunching of impermeable steps induced by drift of adatoms on a vicinal face of Si(001). With the alternation of diffusion coefficient, the step bunching occurs…
We developed a consistent mathematical model for isotropic crystal growth on a substrate covered by the mask material with a periodic series of parallel long trenches where the substrate is exposed to the vapor phase. Surface diffusion and…
We study the meandering instability during growth of an isolated nanostructure, a crystalline cone, consisting of concentric circular steps. The onset of the instability is studied analytically within the framework of the standard…
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…
Growth of gallium nitride on GaN(0001) surface is modeled by Monte Carlo method. Simulated growth is conducted in N-rich conditions, hence it is controlled by Ga atoms surface diffusion. It is shown that dominating four-body interactions of…
The Burton-Cabrera-Frank (BCF) model for the flow of line defects (steps) on crystal surfaces has offered useful insights into nanostructure evolution. This model has rested on phenomenological grounds. Our goal is to show via scaling…
Two mechanisms for the breakdown of step flow growth, in the sense of the appearance of steps of opposite sign to the original vicinality, are studied by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and scaling arguments. The first mechanism is the…
Below the roughening transition, crystal surfaces exhibit nanoscale line defects, steps, that move by exchanging atoms with their environment. In homoepitaxy, we analytically show how the motion of a step train in vacuum under strong…