Instability and Wavelength Selection during Step Flow Growth of Metal Surfaces Vicinal to fcc(001)

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© 2001 American Physical Society (APS). http://www.aps.org/

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

School of Science | A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2001

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Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

5317-5320

Series

Physical Review Letters, Volume 86, Issue 23

Abstract

We study the onset and development of ledge instabilities during growth of vicinal metal surfaces using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. We observe the formation of periodic patterns at [110] close packed step edges on surfaces vicinal to fcc(001) under realistic molecular beam epitaxy conditions. The corresponding wavelength and its temperature dependence are studied in detail. Simulations suggest that the ledge instability on fcc(1,1,m) vicinal surfaces is controlled by the strong kink Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier, with the wavelength determined by dimer nucleation at the step edge. Our results are in agreement with recent continuum theoretical predictions, and experiments on Cu(1,1,17) vicinal surfaces.

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Keywords

step growth, nucleation, vicinal metal surfaces, ledge instabilities, Monte Carlo simulations

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Citation

Rusanen, M. & Koponen, I. T. & Heinonen, J. & Ala-Nissilä, Tapio. 2001. Instability and Wavelength Selection during Step Flow Growth of Metal Surfaces Vicinal to fcc(001). Physical Review Letters. Volume 86, Issue 23. P. 5317-5320. ISSN 0031-9007 (printed). DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.86.5317.