Kinetic roughening
of Kossel and non-Kossel steps
H.M. Cuppen, H. Meekes, W.J.P. van
Enckevort, G.W.M. Vissers and E. Vlieg
Abstract
This paper studies the energetics and roughening behaviour of vicinal
surfaces. The energies of different steps in the presence of 2D
nucleation islands are measured using Monte Carlo simulation results.
The vanishing of this energy should mark the onset of kinetic
roughening. For the [1 0 0] step on a Kossel
(0 0 1) surface this onset is very close to the onset
previously found using a new method. This makes the latter a powerful
method to study the kinetic roughening behaviour of complicated step
structures like the [1 0 0] and [0 1 0] steps on a
non-Kossel (0 0 1) face. These steps are studied using this
approach and compared both mutually and with the Kossel step. Both
steps are found to show very different growth behaviour as compared to
the Kossel step.