title: Rapid coarsening of ion beam ripple patterns by defect annihilation.
abstract: Ripple patterns formed on Pt(111) through grazing incidence ion beam erosion coarsen rapidly. At and below 450 K coarsening of the patterns is athermal and kinetic, unrelated to diffusion and surface free energy. Similar to the situation for sand dunes, coarsening takes place through annihilation reactions of mobile defects in the pattern. The defect velocity derived on the basis of a simple model agrees quantitatively with the velocity of monatomic steps illuminated by the ion beam.
authors.affiliation: I. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen, 52056 Aachen, Germany.
authors.forename: Henri
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Redinger
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Messlinger
authors.forename: Georgiana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stoian
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Krug
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Michely