Effect of step stiffness and diffusion anisotropy on the meandering of a growing vicinal surface

Abstract

We study the step meandering instability on a surface characterized by the alternation of terraces with different properties, as in the case of Si(001). The interplay between diffusion anisotropy and step stiffness induces a finite wavelength instability corresponding to a meandering mode. The instability sets in beyond a threshold value which depends on the relative magnitudes of the destabilizing flux and the stabilizing stiffness difference. The meander dynamics is governed by the conserved Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, which display spatiotemporal coarsening.

4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. (February 2006)

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