Kinetic Step Bunching Instability during Surface Growth

Thomas Frisch and Alberto Verga
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 226102 – Published 9 June 2005

Abstract

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 instability is predicted to occur on a vicinal semiconductor surface Si(001) or Ge(001) during epitaxial growth. The maximal growth rate of the step bunching increases like F4, where F is the deposition flux. Our results are complemented with numerical simulations which reveal a coarsening behavior in the long time evolution for the nonlinear step dynamics.

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  • Received 7 February 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.226102

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Thomas Frisch* and Alberto Verga

  • Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Équilibre, UMR 6594, CNRS, Université de Provence, Marseille, France

  • *Electronic address: frisch@irphe.univ-mrs.fr
  • Electronic address: verga@irphe.univ-mrs.fr

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Issue

Vol. 94, Iss. 22 — 10 June 2005

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