A study was made of the evolution, mediated by surface diffusion, of corrugations on a surface. This was done by using Monte Carlo simulations which were based upon a solid-on-solid model. It was found that, above the roughening temperature (for both unidirectional and bi-directional sinusoidal corrugations of wavelength, L), the amplitude (h) decayed according to h/ho  exp[-t]. Here, t/L4 scaled as predicted by Herring-Mullins theory. Below the roughening temperature, there was a gradual transition to a power-law decay of the amplitude as the temperature decreased. The wavelength scaling varied as a function of the substrate temperature and of the periodicity of the corrugations in the 2 orthogonal transverse directions. At temperatures that were well below the roughening transition, the amplitude of unidirectional sinusoidal corrugations evolved according to: h/ho  (1+t)-1. Here, t/L5 scaled as for diffusion-limited kinetics. In the case of bi-directional sinusoidal corrugations, the profile decay was driven by a combination of line tension and step-step entropic repulsion.

M.V.R.Murty, B.H.Cooper: Physical Review B, 1996, 54[15], 10377-80