Damping of Oscillations in Layer-by-Layer Growth

We present a theory for the damping of layer-by-layer growth oscillations in molecular beam epitaxy. The surface becomes rough on distances larger than a layer coherence length which is substantially larger than the diffusion length. The damping time can be calculated by a comparison of the competing roughening and smoothening mechanisms. The dependence on the growth conditions, temperature and deposition rate, is characterized by a power law. The theoretical results are confirmed by computer simulations.Comment: 19 pages, RevTex, 5 Postscript figures, needs psfig.st

Controlling surface morphologies by time-delayed feedback

We propose a new method to control the roughness of a growing surface, via a time-delayed feedback scheme. As an illustration, we apply this method to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation in 1+1 dimensions and show that the effective growth exponent of the surface width can be stabilized at any desired value in the interval [0.25,0.33], for a significant length of time. The method is quite general and can be applied to a wide range of growth phenomena. A possible experimental realization is suggested.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Spin wave resonances in antiferromagnets

Spin wave resonances with enormously large wave numbers corresponding to wave vectors 10^5-10^6 cm^{-1} are observed in thin plates of FeBO3. The study of spin wave resonances allows one to obtain information about the spin wave spectrum. The temperature dependence of a non-uniform exchange constant is determined for FeBO3. Considerable softening of the magnon spectrum resulting from the interaction of magnons, is observed at temperatures above 1/3 of the Neel temperature. The excitation level of spin wave resonances is found to depend significantly on the inhomogeneous elastic distortions artificially created in the sample. A theoretical model to describe the observed effects is proposed.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

An Exactly Solved Model of Three Dimensional Surface Growth in the Anisotropic KPZ Regime

We generalize the surface growth model of Gates and Westcott to arbitrary inclination. The exact steady growth velocity is of saddle type with principal curvatures of opposite sign. According to Wolf this implies logarithmic height correlations, which we prove by mapping the steady state of the surface to world lines of free fermions with chiral boundary conditions.Comment: 9 pages, REVTEX, epsf, 3 postscript figures, submitted to J. Stat. Phys, a wrong character is corrected in eqs. (31) and (32

Magnetic coupling in highly-ordered NiO/Fe3O4(110): Ultrasharp magnetic interfaces vs. long-range magnetoelastic interactions

We present a laterally resolved X-ray magnetic dichroism study of the magnetic proximity effect in a highly ordered oxide system, i.e. NiO films on Fe3O4(110). We found that the magnetic interface shows an ultrasharp electronic, magnetic and structural transition from the ferrimagnet to the antiferromagnet. The monolayer which forms the interface reconstructs to NiFe2O4 and exhibits an enhanced Fe and Ni orbital moment, possibly caused by bonding anisotropy or electronic interaction between Fe and Ni cations. The absence of spin-flop coupling for this crystallographic orientation can be explained by a structurally uncompensated interface and additional magnetoelastic effects

Scaling of Local Slopes, Conservation Laws and Anomalous Roughening in Surface Growth

We argue that symmetries and conservation laws greatly restrict the form of the terms entering the long wavelength description of growth models exhibiting anomalous roughening. This is exploited to show by dynamic renormalization group arguments that intrinsic anomalous roughening cannot occur in local growth models. However some conserved dynamics may display super-roughening if a given type of terms are present.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. Lett., 4 pages in RevTeX style, no fig

Kinetic roughening of surfaces: Derivation, solution and application of linear growth equations

We present a comprehensive analysis of a linear growth model, which combines the characteristic features of the Edwards--Wilkinson and noisy Mullins equations. This model can be derived from microscopics and it describes the relaxation and growth of surfaces under conditions where the nonlinearities can be neglected. We calculate in detail the surface width and various correlation functions characterizing the model. In particular, we study the crossover scaling of these functions between the two limits described by the combined equation. Also, we study the effect of colored and conserved noise on the growth exponents, and the effect of different initial conditions. The contribution of a rough substrate to the surface width is shown to decay universally as $w_i(0) (\xi_s/\xi(t))^{d/2}$, where $\xi(t) \sim t^{1/z}$ is the time--dependent correlation length associated with the growth process, $w_i(0)$ is the initial roughness and $\xi_s$ the correlation length of the substrate roughness, and $d$ is the surface dimensionality. As a second application, we compute the large distance asymptotics of the height correlation function and show that it differs qualitatively from the functional forms commonly used in the intepretation of scattering experiments.Comment: 28 pages with 4 PostScript figures, uses titlepage.sty; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Records and sequences of records from random variables with a linear trend

We consider records and sequences of records drawn from discrete time series of the form $X_{n}=Y_{n}+cn$, where the $Y_{n}$ are independent and identically distributed random variables and $c$ is a constant drift. For very small and very large drift velocities, we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the probability $p_n(c)$ of a record occurring in the $n$th step and the probability $P_N(c)$ that all $N$ entries are records, i.e. that $X_1 < X_2 < ... < X_N$. Our work is motivated by the analysis of temperature time series in climatology, and by the study of mutational pathways in evolutionary biology.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure