title: Growing smooth interfaces with inhomogeneous moving external fields: dynamical transitions, devil's staircases, and self-assembled ripples.
abstract: We study the steady state structure and dynamics of an interface in a pure Ising system on a square lattice placed in an inhomogeneous external field with a profile designed to stabilize a flat interface and translated with velocity v(e). For small v(e), the interface is stuck to the profile, is macroscopically smooth, and is rippled with a periodicity in general incommensurate with the lattice parameter. For arbitrary orientations of the profile, the local slope of the interface locks in to one of infinitely many rational values (devil's staircase) which most closely approximates the profile. These "lock-in" structures and ripples disappear as v(e) increases. For still larger v(e) the profile detaches from the interface.
authors.affiliation: Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Block-JD, Sector-III, Salt Lake, Calcutta 700098, India.
authors.forename: Abhishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chaudhuri
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Sreeram
authors.forename: Surajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sengupta