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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 81 » Issue 13
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 2743–2746 (1998)

Current-Induced Step Bending Instability on Vicinal Surfaces

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Da-Jiang Liu1, John D. Weeks1,2, and Daniel Kandel3
1Institute for Physical Science and Technology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
2Department of Chemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742
3Department of Physics of Complex System, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel

Received 7 April 1998; published in the issue dated 28 September 1998

Motivated by recent experiments on current induced step bunching on Si(111) surfaces, we study a generalized 2D Barton-Cabrera-Franck model, where adatoms have a diffusion bias parallel to the step edges and there is an attachment barrier at the step edge. We find a new linear instability with novel step patterns. Monte Carlo simulations on a solid-on-solid model are used to study the instability beyond the linear regime.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.2743
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.2743
PACS:
68.35.Ja, 05.70.Ln, 68.10.Jy, 68.55.Jk
 
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