Pavel Smilauer

Unstable epitaxy on vicinal surfaces

Epitaxial growth on a vicinal surface in the step flow regime, where the diffusion length exceeds the step spacing, is studied by simulation of a continuum equation and a solid-on-solid model. Such a surface is known to undergo a meandering instability if step edge barriers suppress downward interlayer transport. We show that the resulting ripple pattern is itself unstable, and evolves at long times into an essentially isotropic mound morphology which is qualitatively and quantitatively indistinguishable from that obtained on singular surfaces.

No coarsening in Pt(111) homoepitaxy

The absence of coarsening in late-stage growth, the evolution of the surface width, and mound shapes in homoepitaxy on Pt(111) around 440 K all agree well with predictions of one-dimensional deterministic growth models for large step-edge barriers. Initial coarsening, which is at variance with these models, is traced to an initially lower effective step-edge barrier that only gradually increases during growth.

Crossover effects in the Wolf-Villain model of epitaxial growth in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions.

A simple model of epitaxial growth proposed by Wolf and Villain is investigated using extensive computer simulations. We find an unexpectedly complex crossover behavior of the original model in both 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions. A crossover from the effective growth exponent

Fast coarsening in unstable epitaxy with desorption.

\beta_{\rm eff}\!\approx\!0.37

Magic islands and barriers to attachment: A S i / S i ( 111 ) 7 × 7 growth model

to

Effects of mobile and immobile impurities on two-dimensional nucleation

\beta_{\rm eff}\!\approx\!0.33

Submonolayer growth with decorated island edges

is observed in 1+1 dimensions, whereas additional crossovers, which we believe are to the scaling behavior of an Edwards--Wilkinson type, are observed in both 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions. Anomalous scaling due to power--law growth of the average step height is found in 1+1 D, and also at short time and length scales in 2+1~D. The roughness exponents

Effect of hydrogen on the growth kinetics of Si(0 0 1) during GSMBE from disilane

\zeta_{\rm eff}^{\rm c}

Reconstruction-Determined Growth of Silver on Silicon(111)—(7×7)

obtained from the height--height correlation functions in 1+1~D (

Step bunching during Si(001) homoepitaxy caused by the surface diffusion anisotropy

\approx\!3/4