Extended statistical analysis of rough growth fronts in gold films prepared by thermal evaporation

Oliva, A.I.; Anguiano, E.; Sacedón, J. L.; Aguilar, Miguel Ángel; Méndez, José A.; Aznárez, José A.

doi:10.1103/physrevb.60.2720

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…One recent experimental paper [5], which reports the observation of mounded GaAs and InP growth with α ≈ 0.5 − 0.6, has explicitly made this case, and other recent reported mound formations [6] in semiconductor MBE growth are also consistent with our contention that mounds may arise from a large effective roughness exponent rather than a Schwoebel instability. Two very recent experimental publications [7] have reached the same conclusion in non-semiconductor MBE growth studies -in these recent publications [7] spectacular mounded surface growth morphologies have been interpreted on the basis of the fourth order conserved growth equations [10][11][12][13][14]. The crucial message of our simulated d=1+1 growth morphologies in Fig.…”

Section: Fig 2 the Height-height Correlation Function H(r) At 10supporting

confidence: 49%

“…In particular, we show that a large roughness exponent (without any ES barrier) as in the fourth order conserved growth universality class [10][11][12][13][14] produces mounded growth morphologies which are indistinguishable from the ES barrier effect. Any experimentally observed mounded morphology therefore requires a careful and detailed quantitative analyses [5][6][7] to determine the physical mechanism (e.g. ES barrier, edge diffusion, large roughness exponent without any ES barrier) underlying its cause -in particular, the existence of a mounded growth morphology by itself may not imply the existence of any significant Schwoebel barrier.…”

Section: Fig 2 the Height-height Correlation Function H(r) At 10mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1] have mostly been interpreted as arising essentially due to a Schwoebel instability. Thus the inevitable conclusion from recent experimental observations [4][5][6][7] is that the mound formation in surface growth does not necessarily arise from the universal mechanism of a Schwoebel instability [1], but may be caused by different non-universal mechanisms in different experimental situations. The purpose of the current article is to explore this nonuniversality in the mound formation in some detail using simple solid-on-solid (SOS) growth models where the kinetic mechanisms leading to the mounded morphologies are explicitly obvious, and therefore compelling conclusions can be drawn about the precise physical mechanism producing the mounds.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[6]. Very recently, experimental observations of striking mound formation [7] in Au and MgO vapor deposition growth have been interpreted without invoking any ES barrier effect. Thus, the observed mound formation in the nonequilibrium sur-face growth in refs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the observed mound formation in the nonequilibrium sur-face growth in refs. [4][5][6][7] is interpreted essentially without invoking any key role being played by an ES barrier whereas the mounded growth morphologies in refs. [1] have mostly been interpreted as arising essentially due to a Schwoebel instability.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Non-universal mound formation in non-equilibrium surface growth

Sarma¹,

Punyindu²,

Toroczkai³

2000

Surface Science

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We demonstrate, using well-established nonequilibrium limited-mobility solid-on-solid growth models, that mound formation in the dynamical surface growth morphology does not necessarily imply the existence of a surface edge diffusion bias ("the Schwoebel barrier"). We find mounded morphologies in several nonequilibrium growth models which incorporate no Schwoebel barrier. Our numerical results indicate that mounded morphologies in nonequilibrium surface growth may arise from a number of distinct physical mechanisms, with the Schwoebel instability being one of them.Keywords: Computer simulations; Models of surface kinetics; Molecular beam epitaxy; Scanning tunneling microscopy; Growth; Surface diffusion; Surface rougheningIn vacuum deposition growth of thin films or epitaxial layers (e.g. MBE) it is common [1] to find mound formation in the evolving dynamical surface growth morphology. Although the details of the mounded morphology could differ considerably depending on the systems and growth conditions, the basic mounding phenomenon in surface growth has been reported in a large number of recent experimental publications [1]. The typical experiment [1] monitors vacuum deposition growth on substrates using STM and/or AFM spectroscopies. Growth mounds are observed under typical MBE-type growth conditions, and the resultant mounded morphology is statistically analyzed by studying the dynamical surface height h(r, t) as a function of the position r on the surface and growth time t. Much attention has focused on this ubiquitous phenomenon of mounding and the associated pattern formation during nonequilibrium surface growth for reasons of possible technological interest (e.g. the possibility of producing controlled nanoscale thin film or interface patterns) and fundamental interest (e.g. understanding nonequilibrium growth and pattern formation).The theoretical interpretation of the mounding phenomenon has often been based [1] on the step-edge diffusion bias [2] or the so-called Schwoebel barrier [3] effect (also known as the Ehrlich-Schwoebel [3], or ES, barrier). The basic idea of the ES barrier-induced mounding (often referred to as an instability) is simple : The ES effect produces an additional energy barrier for diffusing adatoms on terraces from coming "down" toward the substrate, thus probablistically inhibiting attachment of atoms to lower or down-steps and enhancing their attachment to upper or up-steps; the result is therefore mound formation because deposited atoms cannot come down from upper to lower terraces and so three-dimensional mounds or pyramids result as atoms are deposited on the top of already existing terraces.The physical picture underlying mounded growth under an ES barrier is manifestly obvious, and clearly the existence of an ES barrier is a sufficient condition [2] for mound formation in nonequilibrium surface growth.Our interest in this paper is to discuss the necessary condition for mound formation in nonequilibrium surface growth morphology -more precisely, we want to ask the inverse qu...

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