6,494 research outputs found
Kinetics of step bunching during growth: A minimal model
We study a minimal stochastic model of step bunching during growth on a
one-dimensional vicinal surface. The formation of bunches is controlled by the
preferential attachment of atoms to descending steps (inverse Ehrlich-Schwoebel
effect) and the ratio of the attachment rate to the terrace diffusion
coefficient. For generic parameters () the model exhibits a very slow
crossover to a nontrivial asymptotic coarsening exponent .
In the limit of infinitely fast terrace diffusion () linear coarsening
( = 1) is observed instead. The different coarsening behaviors are
related to the fact that bunches attain a finite speed in the limit of large
size when , whereas the speed vanishes with increasing size when .
For an analytic description of the speed and profile of stationary
bunches is developed.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
Kinetic Roughening in Deposition with Suppressed Screening
Models of irreversible surface deposition of k-mers on a linear lattice, with
screening suppressed by disallowing overhangs blocking large gaps, are studied
by extensive Monte Carlo simulations of the temporal and size dependence of the
growing interface width. Despite earlier finding that for such models the
deposit density tends to increase away from the substrate, our numerical
results place them clearly within the standard KPZ universality class.Comment: nine pages, plain TeX (4 figures not included
Equilibrium of anchored interfaces with quenched disordered growth
The roughening behavior of a one-dimensional interface fluctuating under
quenched disorder growth is examined while keeping an anchored boundary. The
latter introduces detailed balance conditions which allows for a thorough
analysis of equilibrium aspects at both macroscopic and microscopic scales. It
is found that the interface roughens linearly with the substrate size only in
the vicinity of special disorder realizations. Otherwise, it remains stiff and
tilted.Comment: 6 pages, 3 postscript figure
Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of oscillatory shape evolution for electromigration-driven islands
The shape evolution of two-dimensional islands under electromigration-driven
periphery diffusion is studied by kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations and
continuum theory. The energetics of the KMC model is adapted to the Cu(100)
surface, and the continuum model is matched to the KMC model by a suitably
parametrized choice of the orientation-dependent step stiffness and step atom
mobility. At 700 K shape oscillations predicted by continuum theory are
quantitatively verified by the KMC simulations, while at 500 K qualitative
differences between the two modeling approaches are found.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure
Linear theory of unstable growth on rough surfaces
Unstable homoepitaxy on rough substrates is treated within a linear continuum
theory. The time dependence of the surface width is governed by three
length scales: The characteristic scale of the substrate roughness, the
terrace size and the Ehrlich-Schwoebel length . If (weak step edge barriers) and ,
then displays a minimum at a coverage , where the initial surface width is reduced by a factor
. The r\^{o}le of deposition and diffusion noise is analyzed. The
results are applied to recent experiments on the growth of InAs buffer layers
[M.F. Gyure {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 81}, 4931 (1998)]. The overall
features of the observed roughness evolution are captured by the linear theory,
but the detailed time dependence shows distinct deviations which suggest a
significant influence of nonlinearities
Breakdown of step-flow growth in unstable homoepitaxy
Two mechanisms for the breakdown of step flow growth, in the sense of the
appearance of steps of opposite sign to the original vicinality, are studied by
kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and scaling arguments. The first mechanism is
the nucleation of islands on the terraces, which leads to mound formation if
interlayer transport is sufficiently inhibited. The second mechanism is the
formation of vacancy islands due to the self-crossing of strongly meandering
steps. The competing roles of the growth of the meander amplitude and the
synchronization of the meander phase are emphasized. The distance between
vacancy islands along the step direction appears to be proportional to the
square of the meander wavelengthComment: 7 pages, 9 figure
Dynamics of a disordered, driven zero range process in one dimension
We study a driven zero range process which models a closed system of
attractive particles that hop with site-dependent rates and whose steady state
shows a condensation transition with increasing density. We characterise the
dynamical properties of the mass fluctuations in the steady state in one
dimension both analytically and numerically and show that the transport
properties are anomalous in certain regions of the density-disorder plane. We
also determine the form of the scaling function which describes the growth of
the condensate as a function of time, starting from a uniform density
distribution.Comment: Revtex4, 5 pages including 2 figures; Revised version; To appear in
Phys. Rev. Let
Drift causes anomalous exponents in growth processes
The effect of a drift term in the presence of fixed boundaries is studied for
the one-dimensional Edwards-Wilkinson equation, to reveal a general mechanism
that causes a change of exponents for a very broad class of growth processes.
This mechanism represents a relevant perturbation and therefore is important
for the interpretation of experimental and numerical results. In effect, the
mechanism leads to the roughness exponent assuming the same value as the growth
exponent. In the case of the Edwards-Wilkinson equation this implies exponents
deviating from those expected by dimensional analysis.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, REVTeX; accepted for publication in PRL; added
note and reference
Short-time scaling behavior of growing interfaces
The short-time evolution of a growing interface is studied within the
framework of the dynamic renormalization group approach for the
Kadar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation and for an idealized continuum model of
molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The scaling behavior of response and correlation
functions is reminiscent of the ``initial slip'' behavior found in purely
dissipative critical relaxation (model A) and critical relaxation with
conserved order parameter (model B), respectively. Unlike model A the initial
slip exponent for the KPZ equation can be expressed by the dynamical exponent
z. In 1+1 dimensions, for which z is known exactly, the analytical theory for
the KPZ equation is confirmed by a Monte-Carlo simulation of a simple ballistic
deposition model. In 2+1 dimensions z is estimated from the short-time
evolution of the correlation function.Comment: 27 pages LaTeX with epsf style, 4 figures in eps format, submitted to
Phys. Rev.
Interfaces with a single growth inhomogeneity and anchored boundaries
The dynamics of a one dimensional growth model involving attachment and
detachment of particles is studied in the presence of a localized growth
inhomogeneity along with anchored boundary conditions. At large times, the
latter enforce an equilibrium stationary regime which allows for an exact
calculation of roughening exponents. The stochastic evolution is related to a
spin Hamiltonian whose spectrum gap embodies the dynamic scaling exponent of
late stages. For vanishing gaps the interface can exhibit a slow morphological
transition followed by a change of scaling regimes which are studied
numerically. Instead, a faceting dynamics arises for gapful situations.Comment: REVTeX, 11 pages, 9 Postscript figure
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