Related papers: Crystal symmetry, step-edge diffusion and unstable…
For low to moderate supersaturations, crystals grow by lateral build-up of new layers. The edges of the layers are known as "steps". We consider the rate of step advance on a flat crystal face under the influence of bulk diffusion in the…
A continuum theory is used to predict scaling laws for the morphological relaxation of crystal surfaces in two independent space dimensions. The goal is to unify previously disconnected experimental observations of decaying surface…
For a parabolic surface partial differential equation coupled to surface evolution, convergence of the spatial semidiscretization is studied in this paper. The velocity of the evolving surface is not given explicitly, but depends on the…
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 planar front of a growing a crystal is often destroyed by instabilities. In the case of growth from a condensed phase, the most frequent ones are diffusion instabilities, which will be but briefly discussed in simple terms in chapter…
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…
Bunching and meandering instability of steps at the 4H-SiC(0001) surface is studied by the kinetic Monte Carlo simulation method. Change in the character of step instability is analyzed for different rates of particle jumps towards step. In…
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 study the continuum limit in 2+1 dimensions of nanoscale anisotropic diffusion processes on crystal surfaces relaxing to become flat below roughening. Our main result is a continuum law for the surface flux in terms of a new…
A high-symmetry crystal surface may undergo a kinetic instability during the growth, such that its late stage evolution resembles a phase separation process. This parallel is rigorous in one dimension, if the conserved surface current is…
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 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 propose a novel approach to continuum modeling of the dynamics of crystal surfaces. Our model follows the evolution of an ensemble of step configurations, which are consistent with the macroscopic surface profile. Contrary to the usual…
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…
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…
We study current-induced step bunching and wandering instabilities with subsequent pattern formations on vicinal surfaces. A novel two-region diffusion model is developed, where we assume that there are different diffusion rates on terraces…
Moving crystal surfaces can undergo step-bunching instabilities, when subject to an electric current. We show analytically that an infinitesimal quantity of a dopant may invert the stability, whatever the sign of the current. Our study is…
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…
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…
Substrate disorder effects on the scaling properties of growing crystalline surfaces in solidification or epitaxial deposition processes are investigated. Within the harmonic approach there is a phase transition into a low-temperature…