Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 1473–1476 (1998)Ratchet Effect in Surface Electromigration: Smoothing Surfaces by an ac FieldReceived 14 August 1997; published in the issue dated 16 February 1998 We demonstrate that for surfaces that have a nonzero Schwoebel barrier the application of an ac field parallel to the surface induces a net electromigration current that points in the descending step direction. The magnitude of the current is calculated analytically and compared with Monte Carlo simulations. Since a downhill current smoothes the surface, our results imply that the application of ac fields can aid the smoothing process during annealing and can slow or eliminate the Schwoebel-barrier-induced mound formation during growth. © 1998 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1473
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.1473
PACS:
68.35.Ct, 68.35.Md
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