Kinetic step bunching during surface growth

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 $F^4$, where $F$ is the deposition flux. Our results are complemented with numerical simulations which reveals a coarsening behavior on the long time for the nonlinear step dynamics.

4 pages, 6 figures, submitted to PRL

References in corpus (3)

• Scaling properties of step bunches induced by sublimation and related mechanisms: A unified perspective
• Step Repulsion Mediates Wandering on a Si(001) Vicinal Face
• Kinetics of step bunching during growth: A minimal model

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• Effect of step stiffness and diffusion anisotropy on the meandering of a growing vicinal surface
• On the role of step-flow advection during electromigration-induced step bunching
• In Situ Microbeam Surface X-ray Scattering Reveals Alternating Step Kinetics During Crystal Growth
• Shape and scaling of moving step bunches
• Nonlinear evolution of the step meandering instability of a growing crystal surface
• Scaling laws for step bunching on vicinal surfaces: the role of the dynamical and chemical effects
• Anisotropic dynamics of a vicinal surface under the meandering step instability
• Burton-Cabrera-Frank theory for surfaces with alternating step types
• Interacting Steps With Finite-Range Interactions: Analytical Approximation and Numerical Results