Effect of the Surface Diffusion and Evaporation of Impurities on Step Bunching Induced by Impurities

Abstract

We consider a vicinal face, where atoms and impurities impinge and evaporate to a vapor phase, to study how the surface diffusion and evaporation of impurities affect step bunching induced by impurities. When the lifetime of impurities on the vicinal face τ imp is long and the surface diffusion of impurities is neglected, the step bunches induced by impurities are tight. When τ imp decreases, the size of the step bunches, which means the number of steps in the bunches, decreases but the separation of single steps from bunches does not occur. When we take into account fast surface diffusion of impurities, the separation and collision between single steps and step bunches occur repeatedly.

Impact of Schwoebel Barriers on the Step-Flow Growth of a Multicomponent Crystal

“…Crystals 2024, 14, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 14 𝑢 (𝑥, 𝑦) = [𝛼 Sinh(𝛬 𝑥) + 𝛽 Cosh(𝛬 𝑥)] exp(𝑖𝑞𝑦 + 𝜔𝑡) + СС (11) where 𝛬 = + 𝑞 , and coefficients 𝛼 , 𝛽 are listed in Appendix A. Using the known distribution functions 𝑢 (𝑥, 𝑦), we can calculate the fluxes of each component toward the step [40].…”

“…Numerous surface phenomena have been described both analytically and numerically. These include various types of instabilities, such as step-bunching [2] and step-meandering [3,4], instabilities resulting from electromigration [5,6], the impact of step-step interactions [7], effects of stress [8,9], impurities [10,11], vacancies [12,13], and void formation, as well as the effects of diffusion anisotropy [14] and different terrace types [15]. Many other aspects and effects have also been summarized in various reviews and books [16][17][18][19][20][21].…”