Coarsening of Unstable Surface Features During Fe(001) Homoepitaxy

Published

January 1, 1995

Author(s)

Joseph A. Stroscio, Daniel T. Pierce, Mark D. Stiles, A Zangwill, L Sander

Abstract

The evolution of the surface profile during homoepitaxial growth of Fe(001) is studied by scanning tunnelling microscopy and reflection high energy electron diffraction. The observed morphology exhibits a non-self affine collection of mound-like features that maintain their shape but coarsen as growth proceeds. The characteristic feature separation L is set in the submonolayer regime and increases with thickness, t, as L ~ t ^{0.16 {plus or minus} 0.04}. During the coarsening phase, the mounds are characterized by a magic slope and a lack of reflection symmetry. These observations are shown to be described by a continuum growth equation without capillarity.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

75

Issue

23

Pub Type

Journals

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Citation

Stroscio, J. , Pierce, D. , Stiles, M. , Zangwill, A. and Sander, L. (1995), Coarsening of Unstable Surface Features During Fe(001) Homoepitaxy, Physical Review Letters, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=620457 (Accessed October 13, 2025)