Scaling laws for step bunching on vicinal surfaces: Role of the dynamical and chemical effects

We study the evolution of step bunches on vicinal surfaces using a thermodynamically consistent step-flow model. By accounting for the dynamics of adatom diffusion on terraces and attachment-detachment at steps (referred to collectively as the dynamical effect), this model circumvents the quasistatic approximation that prevails in the literature. Furthermore, it generalizes the expression of the step chemical potential by incorporating the necessary coupling between the diffusion fields on adjacent terraces (referred to as the chemical effect). Having previously shown that these dynamical and chemical effects can explain the onset of step bunching without recourse to the inverse Ehrlich-Schwoebel (iES) barrier or other extraneous mechanisms, we are here interested in the evolution of step bunches beyond the linear-stability regime. In particular, the numerical resolution of the step-flow free boundary problem yields a robust power-law coarsening of the surface profile, with the bunch height growing in time as H similar to t(1/2) and the minimal interstep distance as a function of the number of steps in the bunch cell obeying l(min) similar to N-2/3. Although these exponents have previously been reported, the novelty of the present approach is that these scaling laws are obtained in the absence of an iES barrier or adatom electromigration. In order to validate our simulations, we take the continuum limit of the discrete step-flow system via Taylor expansions with respect to the terrace size, leading to a novel nonlinear evolution equation for the surface height. We investigate the existence of self-similar solutions of this equation and confirm the 1/2 coarsening exponent obtained numerically for H. We highlight the influence of the combined dynamical-chemical effect and show that it can be interpreted as an effective iES barrier in the setting of the standard Burton-Cabrera-Frank theory. Finally, we use a Pade approximant to derive an analytical expression for the velocity of steadily moving step bunches and compare it to numerical simulations.

Automated summary

We study the evolution of step bunches on vicinal surfaces using a thermodynamically consistent step-flow model, which considers the dynamical and chemical effects to explain the onset of step bunching without recourse to the iES barrier. Numerical simulations show a power-law coarsening of the surface profile, with the bunch height growing as H similar to t(1/2) and the minimal interstep distance as l(min) similar to N-2/3, obtained in the absence of an iES barrier or adatom electromigration. The influence of the combined dynamical-chemical effect in the evolution of step bunches is highlighted, showing it can be interpreted as an effective iES barrier in the standard Burton-Cabrera-Frank theory.