Steering Epitaxial Growth

Attractive dispersion forces, active between incident atoms and the substrate, cause preferential arrival of atoms on protruding parts on growing film surfaces. This phenomenon, which we refer to as “steering”, can give rise to significant flux redistribution. The lack of incident flux homogeneity, disregarded so far in growth studies, contributes to enhanced roughness of the growth front. This principal disadvantage can be turned around. In a quite narrow window of polar angles of incidence, it becomes possible to fabricate one-dimensional arrays of ripples oriented perpendicular to the plane of incidence. Several aspects of the mechanism, as well as an application of one-dimensional magnetic aggregates, are discussed