Effect of step stiffness and diffusion anisotropy on the meandering of a growing vicinal surface.
We study the step meandering instability on a surface characterized by the alternation of terraces with different properties, as in the case of Si(001). The interplay between diffusion anisotropy and step stiffness induces a finite wavelength instability corresponding to a meandering mode. The instability sets in beyond a threshold value which depends on the relative magnitudes of the destabilizing flux and the stabilizing stiffness difference. The meander dynamics is governed by the conserved Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation, which display spatiotemporal coarsening.
Frisch
Thomas
T
Institut de Recherche sur les Phénomènes Hors Equilibre, UMR 6594, CNRS, Université de Provence, Marseille, France. frisch@irphe.univ-mrs.fr
Verga
Alberto
A