Nonlinear Ripple Dynamics on Amorphous Surfaces Patterned by Ion Beam Sputtering

Javier Muñoz-García, Mario Castro, and Rodolfo Cuerno
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 086101 – Published 27 February 2006

Abstract

Erosion by ion-beam sputtering (IBS) of amorphous targets at off-normal incidence frequently produces a (nanometric) rippled surface pattern, strongly resembling macroscopic ripples on aeolian sand dunes. A suitable generalization of continuum descriptions of the latter allows us to describe theoretically for the first time the main nonlinear features of ripple dynamics by IBS, namely, wavelength coarsening and nonuniform translation velocity, that agree with similar results in experiments and discrete models. These properties are seen to be the anisotropic counterparts of in-plane ordering and (interrupted) pattern coarsening in IBS experiments on rotating substrates and at normal incidence.

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  • Received 21 June 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.086101

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Javier Muñoz-García1, Mario Castro2, and Rodolfo Cuerno1

  • 1Departamento de Matemáticas and Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos (GISC), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Avenida de la Universidad 30, E-28911 Leganés, Spain
  • 2GISC and Grupo de Dinámica No Lineal (DNL), Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería (ICAI), Universidad Pontificia Comillas, E-28015 Madrid, Spain

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Vol. 96, Iss. 8 — 3 March 2006

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